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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES OF RESPECT 



3 



Dr. Ryland Thomas Brown 



EMINENT AND PROFOUND AS A 



PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL, MORAL AND POLITICAL REFORMER, 

PATRIOT AND PHILANTHROPIST, SCIENTIST AND 

PHILOSOPHER, EDUCATOR AND AUTHOR, 

PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON. 



EDITED BY HIS FRIEND 



ROBERT DENNY 






1,-r 




The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; 

Because the Lord hath anointed me 

To preach good tidings unto the meek; 

He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted; 

To proclaim liberty to the captives, 

And the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound; 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, 

And the day of vengeance of our God; 

To comfort all that mourn, 

To give unto them beauty for ashes ; 

The oil of joy for mourning; 

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. 

—Isaiah. 



INDIANAPOLIS: 

CARLON & HOLLENBECK, PRINTERS. 
1 89I. 




1 ■ * 



COPYRIGHT BY 

EOBERT DENNY, 

1891. 



DEDICATION. 



Especially, to the survivors of that patriotic band 
of men and women who, in the 'Forties and 'Fifties, 
in the spirit of true philanthropy, and as co-laborers 
with Dr. Brown in the great contest with the slave 
power, heroically rose above the race prejudice then 
prevailing, and demanded that slavery in these United 
States should be abolished, and that the unalienable 
right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, pro- 
claimed in the Declaration of American Independence, 
should be equally guaranteed to every person, not a 
criminal ; also, 

To the host of equally patriotic and philanthropic men 
and women who have had the self-sacrificing courage to 
make common cause with Dr. Brown in his long and 
uncompromising warfare against that greater curse to 
mankind than slavery — the liquor traffic — and, gen- 
erally, 

To the advocates and promoters of all religious, 
moral, and political reforms, this unpretentious little 
volume is most respectfully dedicated by the 

Editor. 



PREFACE. 



Doctor Ryland T. Brown, the subject of this vol- 
ume, died in the city of Indianapolis, May 2, 1890. 
The numerous testimonials of the esteem in which he 
was held by an unusually wide circle of friends and 
acquaintances, some of which testimonials are given in 
this volume, evidence the propriety of publishing them 
in a form suitable for distribution and preservation. 
Dr. Brown had been a member of the Central Pro- 
hibition Club, of Indianapolis, from its organization. 
That club, at its first meeting after his death, unani- 
mously determined to hold a public memorial service 
in honor of the man whose companionship had been so 
dear to every surviving member. That service was held 
at the Third Christian Church, in the city of Indian- 
apolis, on Lord's Day, May 18, 1890, Dr. Brown being, 
at his death, an honored member of the Third Chris- 
tian Congregation of Indianapolis. The proceedings 
were taken down in short-hand, and a full transcript 
made, as published in the body of this work. At 
that point the matter has rested for nearly a year, not- 
withstanding the anxiety for a publication to the mem- 
ory of Dr. Brown that was well known to widely exist. 
At length the manuscript and a mass of correspond- 
ence, etc., were placed in the hands of the under- 
signed, with the request of the club, and of Mrs. Nancy 
T. Brown, the worthy widow of Dr. Brown, to arrange 
and prepare for the press the matter contained in 



6 BR. RYLAXD T. BROWX. 

the following pages, and procure its publication in 
book form. Want of experience as an editor, and a 
sense of inability to perform the service thus assigned, 
so well as it deserves to be done, is here frankly con- 
fessed. 

This volume is not all that the character and life-work 
of Dr. Brown merits. Many volumes might be filled 
with productions from his prolific pen, pregnant with 
valuable instruction and information to the masses of 
mankind. It is to be hoped that some one competent 
for the task will compile such a work, and, at no distant 
day, give the world the benefit of its publication. 

It w r ould not be in good taste here to attempt a 
eulogy on the life and character of Dr. Brown. That 
is the purpose of this volume. Suffice it to say at this 
point, that his death terminated a life that it is the joy 
and satisfaction of those who knew him to remember. 

Robert Denny. 

Indiana-polis, May 2, 1891 . 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 

[Furnished by Dr. Brown's only surviving Brother, Joseph Franklin Brown, 
Esq., Indianapolis.] 



Doctor Ryland Thomas Brown was born in Mason 
county (now Lewis county), Kentucky, October 5, 1807, 
and removed with his parents to Clermont county, Ohio, 
in 1808, where he was sent to the first free school organ- 
ized west of the Alleghany mountains. In 182 1 his fa- 
ther and family removed to Rush county, Indiana. In 
1826 he commenced the study of medicine at Rushville, 
which he completed at the Ohio Medical College in Cin- 
cinnati, graduating in 1829 ; in which year he was mar- 
ried to Miss Mary Reeder. In 1832 he entered upon the 
full practice of his profession at Connersville, Indiana, at 
the same time prosecuting literary and scientific studies, 
to supply the defects of his early education ; devoting 
much time to the physical sciences, especially to chem- 
istry, geology and mineralogy. In 1844 he changed 
his residence to Crawfordsville, Indiana, where Wabash 
College gave him better opportunities to prosecute his 
said studies, all the while having charge of an extensive 
practice of his profession as a distinguished physician. 
In 1850 he received from Wabash College the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts. In 1853 he was awarded a 
silver cup by the Indiana State Board of Agriculture, 
as a premium for the best essay on Drainage. In I854 
he was appointed the first State Geologist of Indiana, 
by Governor Wright, notwithstanding their disagree- 
ment on religion and politics, and as such geologist he 



8 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

traveled the entire length and breadth of the state sev- 
eral times, on foot, locating the stone quarries and coal 
fields ; and the accuracy of the reports of his laborious 
work has never been disputed. In 1858 he was elected 
to the chair of Natural Science in the Northwestern 
Christian University (now Butler University), at Indi- 
anapolis, which position he accepted and removed his 
residence to that city, where he remained (except when 
temporarily absent in Washington and Philadelphia) 
until his death. He was connected, as professor, with 
said university until 187 1, the last two years also filling 
the chair of Chemistry in the Indiana Medical College. 
In 1872 he received, unsolicited, on the recommenda- 
tion of Governor Morton (then United States Senator), 
the appointment of Chemist-in-Chief in the Department 
of Agriculture at Washington, which position he re- 
signed in 1874, because of the confinement the proper 
discharge of its duties exacted ; and returning to Indi- 
anapolis, he accepted the chair of Physiology in the In- 
diana Medical College. In 187 1 he prepared for pub- 
lication a book on "Physiology and Hygiene," which 
is extensively used in common schools and academies 
throughout the western states. In 1876 he was made 
President of the Judges of the fourth group of Food Ex- 
hibits at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, and 
was awarded a tastefully designed medal for his serv- 
ices. From 1880 to 1886 he was employed as Assistant 
State Geologist, in which capacity he made surveys of 
many counties, reports of which are published in the 
State Executive Documents. 

In 1865 he met with a sad bereavement in the death 
of his first wife. In the autumn of 1866 he married 
Mrs. Nancy Tomlinson, of Shelby county, Indiana, 
who survives him. 

Since 1879 ne was an assistant editor of The Indiana 



BIOGEAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 

Farmer, and was for many years previous a frequent 
contributor to its columns, and has thus accomplished a 
vast amount of good for the agricultural interests of his 
state. 

His death occurred at his home in Indianapolis, at 3 
o'clock, on Friday, May 2, 1890, and was occasioned by a 
second attack of la grippe. He remained perfectly con- 
scious until the last moment and knew that death was near, 
but he felt no alarm and approached the close of a long, 
useful, active and honorable life, with the calm serenity 
of a Christian warrior laying off his armor. His funeral 
was largely attended (notwithstanding his request that 
it should be private), and on that day he lacked but five 
months of being eighty-three years of age. For more 
than sixty years he was an earnest advocate of temper- 
ance, and kept in the fore front of the movement to the 
day of his death. He died at peace with God and man, 
and now has been gathered, a ripe sheaf full of the 
golden wheat of good deeds, into the granary of our 
Lord, there to await, in confidence and trust, the Great 
Harvest Home. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES 



IN HONOR OF THE LATE DR. RYLAND T. BROWN, HELD AT THE THIRD 
CHRISTIAN CHURCH, SUNDAY, MAY 18, 1890, 3 O'CLOCK P. M., UNDER 
THE AUSPICES OF THE CENTRAL PROHIBITION CLUB OF INDIAN- 
APOLIS (OF WHICH CLUB DR. BROWN WAS AN ACTIVE AND HON- 
ORED MEMBER FROM ITS ORGANIZATION TO THE TIME OF HIS 
DEATH), AND PRESIDED OVER BY DR. PHILIP McNAB, PRESIDENT 
OF THE CLUB. 



Dr. McNab — It is thought appropriate to sing some 
of the old hymns with which we are all supposed to be 
acquainted. We have selected for the opening hymn, 
Number 390 — " Servant of God, Well Done." All are 
requested to participate in the singing. 

(The six verses sung.) 

Dr. McNab— Elder Brazillai M. Blount, of Irving- 
ton, had been selected to lead in the exercises, but he 
informed us that he could not be here. We thought 
this would be the appropriate time to read his letter, 
giving the reasons why he could not attend, and I will 
ask Brother Robert Denny to please read the letter. 

Mr. Denny read the following letter : 

Irvington, May 14, 1890. 
Bro. McNab — Your letter inviting me to participate in the 
memorial exercises in honor of the late Dr. R. T. Brown, has been 
received. Nothing could afford me more pleasure than to be able 
to contribute, as far as my ability would permit, to services in honor 
of the noble man whose memory you are thus to celebrate. No 
man among the many with whom I am acquainted comes nearer 
to my conception of exalted Christian manhood than he. Modest, 
unassuming and deferential to the feelings of others, yet, with the 
courage of his convictions, he was fearless in the advocacy of what 
he believed to be right. Though dead, he yet speaks to the hearts 



12 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

of thousands of living workers in the various enterprises that tend 
to the elevation of our common humanity. A born leader of men 
in fields of investigation and research, he took a front rank in every 
good work. In large measure self-made, he inspired young men 
and women to similar noble efforts. As an educator, he was thor- 
oughly versed in the varied sciences that constitute liberal culture ; 
a walking encyclopedia of history. As a citizen, no man was 
more deeply interested in the measures that make for the good of 
the whole people. What his conscience approved, he did with his 
might. His efforts in the cause of human freedom, and his later 
endeavors to assist in the emancipation of our nation from the 
curse of rum, clearly mark the man. 

Prohibitionists have lost a great leader. But his loss should 
stimulate us to greater effort, to the end that the cause in which 
he fought, and in which he fell with all his armor on, may be 
carried to the successful termination for which the old hero so de- 
voutly prayed. 

As a Christian, Father Brown was pre-eminent. But he has 
fallen ; yea, rather, has gone up higher. We miss him. We miss 
his counsels ; but we should not mourn. Let us rather take conso- 
lation in the fact that he rests from his labors, and his works do 
follow him. 

Farewell, our dear old teacher; our Father in Israel. When it 
is ours to die, may we have our work as well done. Bro. McNab : 
I am under obligation to be away on Lord's Day. I have a mission 
point in Miami county where we are starting a church, and would 
greatly disappoint if I did not go ; hence, can not be with you. I 
am sorry it is so. I missed the funeral because I was away. But, 
with Dr. Brown's missionary spirit, if he could be consulted now. 
I believe he would say, go; you will honor me by honoring my 
blessed Lord. Fraternally, thine, B. M. Blount. 

Dr. McNab — Since we learned that we could not 
have Brother Blount with us. the committee selected 
Sister Pollock, who will now read us the scriptural les- 
son, after which we will be led in prayer by Brother 
Love Jameson. 

Mrs. J. E. Pollock then read appropriate portions 
of the sacred Scriptures ; followed by 

Prayer, by Elder Love H. Jameson, as follows : 

Our Father, who art in Heaven, we come to-day. in 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. ' 13 

the name of Jesus Christ, to supplicate a throne of divine 
grace, for grace and mercy to help us in this our time of 
need. And upon occasions like the present we feel 
most sensibly our need of Thee. We are creatures of a 
moment ; here to-day and to-morrow gone forever. But 
we rejoice to know that Thou knowest our frame, and 
lcnowest that we are dust ; that Thou hast graciously 
promised if we come to Thee for life we shall receive 
that help that shall be necessary for us. Wouldst Thou 
be pleased to help us to-day to draw nearer to Thy holy 
presence with profoundest feelings of reverence. May 
we take Thy holy name upon our lips with such feelings 
as ought to characterize those who undertake to wor- 
ship the Eternal King. We come to-day to perform a 
service with reference to one we love. Though absent 
from us we love him to-day. We come to-day to ask 
that his good example may still be felt by us all ; that 
we may remember his labor of love, his patience, 
his hope, his careful performance of whatever he deemed 
to be his duty. May these living exemplifications of 
love that so strongly characterized him be strengthened 
in every one of us to-day when we remember the exam- 
ple that he has left behind. Wouldst Thou be pleased 
to enable us to-day, in the songs we sing and in the 
words we utter, and in the prayers we offer, supplica- 
tions we ask, and all our efforts, that we have the glory 
of God in view, and the advancement of the great in- 
terests of common humanity in which our dear brother 
was so earnestly engaged. We pray Thee now to be 
with us to-day. We pray Thee to impress every one of 
our hearts with a sense of our dependence upon Thee. 
And while we feel that we have sustained a loss, may we 
be comforted when we remember that our loss is doubt- 
less the gain of him who departed from among us. May 
we remember this ; may it be our continual endeavor to 



14 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

meet him in a better and a brighter world. And hearus 
in these our very imperfect petitions. We now wish to 
ask in behalf of the loved ones he left behind, — may they 
be comforted when they remember that with him all is 
well. May they remember that his faith, and hope, and 
zeal in the cause of truth were constantly manifested in 
his life ; and that in all his walks of life he continually 
showed to all who knew him, that he recognized him- 
self as a disciple of the meek and lowly One. 

O, hear us in these our imperfect petitions. O, 
bless us, and help us to profit by the precious example 
left us. Help us to live in the light of his example, and 
to endeavor to obtain that blessed immortality that 
awaits us beyond the grave. And now, Father, forgive 
us our sins. Blot from Thy book of remembrance all 
our transgressions and remember them against us no 
more. Bring us through life safely, as Thou didst bring 
our dear brother to the grave in peace. May we be 
brought to our graves as he was, in peace and in the 
hope of a glorious immortality ; and to God be all the 
praise forever. Amen. 

Hymn No. 606 — "Jesus, Lover of my Soul" — was 
then sung by the congregation. 

Dr. McNab — Tradition informs us that it was said of 
an eminent character of antiquity, that his death was 
untimely and his brethren mourned. So we, because 
of the great usefulness, and of the eminent qualifications 
of Dr. Brown, feel that, notwithstanding he had lived 
his fourscore years and more, and that his life was re- 
plete with work to the last — yet we feel that he was so 
eminently qualified as a counselor and as a worker that 
we, too, feel that his work was not done, and for 
that reason his death was to us untimely, and we, too, 
mourn. And the activities in which he participated 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 15 

were so numerous, the scientific investigations so mani- 
fold, that but few of the interests can be represented 
here to-day ; and even as to those few, the speakers 
have been admonished that their time will be limited. 
But, although their time will be limited, it will take 
perhaps two hours to go through the exercises, and we 
hope none will become weary ; because the change of 
speakers, and the various-sided character of our beloved 
Dr. Brown will be presented. 

We will now be addressed by the pastor of this church, 
Brother Van Buskirk, who will present 

" THE CHARACTER OF DR. BROWN AS A CHRISTIAN." 

Elder Daniel R. Van Buskirk — In view of the fact 
that I spoke at considerable length at Dr. Brown's fu- 
neral, very largely dealing with the topic assigned 
me to-day, and in view of the fact that these services 
are held in our own house, and those having them in 
charge are in some sense our invited guests, and in view 
of the further fact that we have already set apart next 
Thursday evening as an evening for memorial exer- 
cises under the management of the church itself, of 
which the Doctor was a member, I feel very keenly a 
sense of impropriety of my occupying a place on the 
programme to-day, and so urged upon the committee 
having this in charge. And I am here, not in obedi- 
ence to my own sense of propriety, but in compliance 
with their wishes, and I am asked to talk a few minutes, 
and they certainly will be very brief. 

I am asked to talk of Dr. Brown as a Christian ; in 
other words, the religious life and character of Dr. 
Brown.' No correct analysis, no just estimate can be 
made of his religious life and character, as indeed no 
just estimate can be made of any life and character, 
that does not take into consideration the two-fold rela- 



1 6 DR. RYLAND T. BROWX. 

tion in which Dr. Brown stood, and in which all men 
stand. First, in his relation to God, and second, in his 
relation to his fellow-men. And I am all the more par- 
ticular to call attention to this discrimination in the very 
beginning, for the reason that any one familiar with the 
currents of religious thought to-day, and the character 
of what they call religious activity, will have no dif- 
ficult}' in perceiving the distinction. To regard this 
distinction, and to make what we call the humanities of 
our religion the expression of our benevolence to our 
fellow-men, cover the entire ground of human religious 
obligations. 

It is no uncommon thing to speak of a man, just in 
his dealings with his fellow-men ; kind and charitable 
to the needy ; discharging faithfully his duties to his 
own kind, as being in a sufficient sense a religious man. 
This was not Dr. Brown's conception. He sustained a 
relation to God as well as to man ; a relation that he 
recognized ; a relation that gave birth to sacred duties 
and sacred obligations, that the Doctor never thought of 
neglecting, any more than he did the duties and obliga- 
tions growing out of his relations to his fellows. And 
this was manifest in several ways. First, it was a con- 
stant concern with him to know God ; to understand 
Him. This was apparent even in his study of the phys- 
ical universe ; of the material creation. It was not 
merely a laboratory of physical forces with Dr. Brown ; 
but the great and mighty forces of the physical universe 
had an author, and with him that author was God. And 
He was the author of the laws by which these forces 
operated. And whether he was tracing out the develop- 
ment of the physical creation, as indicated in the science 
of geology; whether he saw it in the great vegetable 
kingdom, or the starry heaven, he always saw God. 
His faith could distinguish the invisible in the visible ; 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 1 7 

in the seen the unseen. And to Dr. Brown the whole 
material creation in all its endless manifestations was a 
manifest parable, of which God Himself was the author. 
He brought an inspiration to that constant and ceaseless 
study; and that concern, that ever manifested itself to 
the very latest period of his life, was simply that he 
might know more of God. Any one familiar with the 
Doctor knows this was a prominent and radical feature 
in his Christian character. He not only studied to 
know God through the Book of Nature ; but he saw God 
in the Divine Revelation. 

God was to him, not only the author of the physical 
world, but of that book we call the book of Divine Rev- 
elation. And he sought through life by careful and 
diligent and unprejudiced study of that wondrous book 
to know God ; to know Him in His infiniteness ; to 
know Him in history, by the unfolding of His purposes, 
as we find it recorded in that strange and striking and 
wondrous book we call the Bible. But that was not all. 
He studied to know God in Christ. He studied all his 
life to know His purposes. Hence Christ became to 
him the personal embodiment of God's truth ; and with 
him that truth was paramount ; that truth was supreme. 
He knew nothing else as the sovereign of his conscience. 
He had no guide for his life save the will of the Infinite, 
unfolded to the world in the history and in the teach- 
ings of the Man of Nazareth. Hence, Dr. Brown's 
faith was not a blind trust. It was not a mere unintel- 
ligent impulse ; it was a fixed and settled conviction. 

As I can not talk but a few minutes, I w r ish to ask the 
privilege of reading two or three extracts from a letter 
written by Dr. Brown sixty years ago, on the 15th of 
last March. He was then little more than twenty-two 
years of age. It reveals this characteristic of his mind, 
2 



1 8 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

and was, as Brother Jameson said at the time Dr. Brown 
was buried, an important act of his life. 

He says : " Clothed with the panoply of faith, with 
the volume of unerring wisdom in my hand, I would be 
ashamed to fear a host of sectarians who have no 
stronger armor, either offensive or defensive, than their 
creed." 

Of course this letter was written at a time when de- 
nominational strife was everywhere. 

Continuing, he says he has made up his mind to the 
truth of the following three propositions : 

i. " Faith is nothing more nor less than a conviction 
of the truth of any proposition from evidence. 

2. " That faith in Jesus Christ is nothing more than 
a belief of the facts recorded of him by the Evangelists, 
to wit : that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Mes- 
siah ; and that he gave impregnable proof of his divine 
mission by his miraculous birth, by the numerous mira- 
cles which he wrought while living, and by his death, 
resurrection and ascension. 

3. "The evangelical writings, containing the facts 
relative to the mighty works which were done by Christ 
and his apostles, together with the corroborating testi- 
mony of the prophecies, form altogether a phalanx of 
evidence sufficient to convince any reasonable mind that 
'Jesus is the Christ.' " 

Upon these evidences his faith centered ; not in phi- 
losophy, not in speculation, not in a theory, but in a 
person ever living, ever reigning, ever triumphant, and 
the embodiment of all truth in heaven and in earth. 

And this explains very largely the conscientiousness 
of Dr. Brown, which was a marked feature in his relig- 
ious life. His concern was to know that his life was in 
conformity with the true life, and not whether it corre- 
sponded with the trifling sentiments of the times in 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 19 

which he lived, or of the people by whom he was sur- 
rounded. 

Any one familiar with Dr. Brown will certainly un- 
derstand that I am not mistaken in the analysis I give 
of this particular phase of his life. He saw God in the 
mighty work of nature ; he saw Him in the great store- 
house of Divine Revelation ; above all he saw Him in 
Christ, the sun of his life, the Savior of a lost and ruined 
world. 

Let me look for just a minute at Dr. Brown in his re- 
lation to his fellow-men. 

First, Dr. Brown recognized always, and in his every 
act, the indefeasible rights of his fellow-men. Not the 
rights of men moving in certain circles ; not the rights 
of men clothed with a vast munificence ; not the rights 
of men who are the favorites of fortune, but man as man 
— man as he came from the hand of his maker ; man as 
endowed with capabilities of infinite uplifting, though 
in the gutter and covered with disgrace ; and it was a 
large part of his life-work, as an able minister of the 
Gospel, which indeed he was, to present to wayward 
and fallen men and women the warming influence of 
divine love and divine truth, that they might be lifted 
up, and be made to stand in the presence of God and 
gathered in with the hosts of the redeemed. And hence, 
Dr. Brown had not a single element of the Pharisee. 

He never turned away from a man simply because of 
his black skin. He recognized the affinity of man — the 
divine in man, and it showed through all his life. 

In all his dealings with his fellow-men he recognized 
the claims of his fellow-men upon him ; their claims for 
instruction and help and guidance. And hence Dr. 
Brown, not for pay, not for the promise of self-interests, 
not for self-aggrandizements, not for the advancement 
of his own glory among men, but for the welfare of his 



20 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

fellow-men, was always ready to impart useful knowl- 
edge. 

I know of one instance of which I may now be per- 
mitted to speak, where he might have made himself 
wealthy by the superior knowledge he possessed of the 
physical creation. He seemed to think, however, that 
man had no right to use such knowledge for his indi- 
vidual benefit; he had reasoned it out and he said, " I 
am the debtor of all men, and the very fact that God 
made me the depository of this truth placed me under 
obligation to Him." 

Dr. Brown recognized not only the rights of his fel- 
low-men around him, but he recognized his obligations 
to help them, aid them and lift them up and advance 
them in happiness here. Dr. Brown was a good man. 

As we rode to the cemetery the other day after the 
funeral services were over, quite a number of us to- 
gether, we spent the time in sketches regarding this 
marvelous character, and one gentleman, whom I will 
not name, said, a Dr. Brown was a good man, but he 
was not so supremely good that he was good for noth- 
ing." It was not a negative goodness. He was not a 
mere goody good kind of a man. He had an intelli- 
gent appreciation of God and Christ. 

One other point, and then I shall cease talking. It is 
this. In a long life, in a life in which he was contin- 
ually placed in hostility to many particular sentiments, 
and seemingly to the cherished interests of selfish men. 
Dr. Brown never had any personal controversy. I do not 
think the man lives who can point to a single personal 
difficulty Dr. Brown had with any man. He was a re- 
ligious man, and his religion went everywhere. It went 
with him into the laboratory ; it went with him out into 
the highway ; it went with him through all his walks in 
life. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 21 

He was a conscientious man. Dr. Brown never took 
any part in the tricks of politicians, certainly not any 
interest in those partisan discussions of merely political 
matters. But if it was a question of morals or princi- 
ples — principles right or wrong — no man was ever left to 
doubt where Dr. Brown stood. He stood on the side of 
right. You might differ with him in policies, and differ 
with him as to methods ; but no man ever justly ques- 
tioned the right of the things he sought to accomplish. 

Dr. McNab — " Dr. Brown as a Scientist and Edu- 
cator." Professor Benton has kindly consented to talk 
to us on this phase of his character for a few min- 
utes. 

Professor Allen R. Benton — I trust I do not for- 
get that no words of mine, or words that shall be 
spoken by any other person from this place to-day, can 
do any especial honor to Dr. Brown. For man honors 
himself, and as honoring himself no man will stand 
higher in honor than he whose memory we treasure, 
and of whom we speak to-day. 

It is one of the indubitable things of life that life be- 
gets life. The life of a man like Dr. Brown begets 
new life in a community, and so we meet not so much 
to honor him as to honor ourselves in speaking a word 
of recollection and memory, and of glad re-calling of 
the virtues, characteristics, and powers of such a man 
as this. Hero, and valiant, not only in one field, but in 
many fields, of labor and of life. Few men were more 
many-sided than Dr. Brown, and this committee has 
very wisely chosen that certain ones who knew him in 
certain relations and fields of activity of life, that they 
should speak of him in those relations. 

Associated with him for thirteen years as an in- 
structor of the young, as pushing his investigations in 



22 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

science and making them feasible to the young, this 
pleasing service has been assigned to me. And, in ap- 
proaching this, I feel the inadequacy of the time and of 
my own ability to give any just view of what Dr. Brown 
really was. Like the Apostle Paul, he is an epistle, 
read and known of all men. There is scarcely a man 
in this state that has not heard the name of Dr. Brown. 
In the middle and the passing generation nearly all 
were acquainted with him. His striking appearance, 
and his almost universality of presence, a kind of per- 
sonal ubiquity, had made him acquainted with all the 
people of this state. And the general view is that he 
was a man unsurpassed in scientific attainments. He 
stands, I think, before most of the people of this state 
and of the nation to-day, in that attitude. A hero of 
science as well as in life. 

And in speaking of his scientific attainments, of his 
power as an educator, first let me observe what strikes 
me as very remarkable, almost bordering on the mar- 
velous — the comprehensiveness of his scientific attain- 
ments. He seemed to take in all branches of knowledge. 
To-day it is thought that a man must pursue but a single 
line of scientific study to attain any tolerable degree of 
success ; hence the talk of our college professors, that 
" He is a specialist, and knows one thing well. He is 
master of one branch of study." I do not know whether 
this modern idea is the most favorable for culture, real 
culture, but one thing I do know is that Dr. Brown was 
not a specialist in the sense that we use that term to-day. 
He was a man of comprehensive knowledge. What 
subject of science did the Doctor, with his power of 
analysis and thought, his strong grasp of fact, not un- 
derstand? Did you ask me what was his knowledge of 
geology? The records of this state will show, as well 
as the experience of multitudes of persons, that this state 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 23 

has produced no man of such particular knowledge as 
this remarkable man. Do we come to the study of the 
science of the human body? His life seemed almost to 
have been devoted to that, if you would judge by his 
attainments in that department of work. All of the 
minutia that belongs to the physician's course of stud)-, 
all of that comprehensive philosophy pertaining to the 
constitution of the human frame, was easily and strongly 
grasped by this man. If you look into any Other de- 
partment, if you look into the department of natural 
science, anywhere, he was at home ; not only would he 
talk intelligently, but he could talk informedly. 

I remember a short while ago we were engaged 
together in a meeting in the western part of this state, 
and riding home together in the cars I will not say that 
I was entertained by his conversation, that would be a 
slight acknowledgment ; I was not only entertained 
but I was instructed in all the matters that pertain to 
the conditions of this country, and in the fullness of that 
knowledge. Not only understanding all the subjects 
that science has given us in these latter years, but in 
the fullness, in the completeness and in the perfection 
of detail of his knowledge, you would take him to be a 
specialist. This is my conception of Dr. Brown as a 
scientist, — spreading himself, with a depth and com- 
prehension and fullness of knowledge, over all the 
branches of physical science. 

I have talked with him about almost every branch of 
science, and in all the lines of human thought, and 
there was a richness of information, there was a grasp 
of the subject, and there was a philosophical conception 
of all the things pertaining to it that marked him as an 
extraordinary man. But there was another feature 
about his scientific knowledge, and which I can not pass 
by, which is very difficult to find in men. It has come 



24 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

to be the common thought that the theoretical man 
lacks practical characteristics. Now it was not so with 
our friend and departed brother ; he was eminently a 
practical man. And he realized that aphorism of old, 
that the great end of learning is the glory of God, and 
the improvement of man's estate. If there was any one 
that endeavored to improve man's estate by his learning, 
as well as giving glory to God through it, that man was 
Dr. Brown. No man was more practical than he. If 
one thing above anything else could be said of him it 
would be that he was intensely, eagerly and earnestly a 
practical man. He did not seek for theoretical princi- 
ples simply to delight himself as a philosopher and as a 
man of speculation to all abstruse thought. He wished 
to confer happiness upon man. Look at all of his work. 
Look at his work in geology, in botany, in physiology, 
and in any department of science in which he worked. 
In chemistry. Why, I would have to catalogue all the 
sciences were I to catalogue his labors, and the compre- 
hensive extent of this man's knowledge. In all of* those 
things his work was for the improvement of man's es- 
tate. 

But let me speak a minute of him as a teacher. For 
thirteen years we were associated together in the North- 
western Christian University. During that time there 
were hundreds and hundreds of students under his 
charge and mine together, and wherever I go in this 
state, the inquiry is, "What can you tell me about old 
Dr. Brown ? " He was recognized as an old man, and 
that word was not used in any disparaging sense. But 
it was used as a term of respect and honor. What can 
you tell me of him? Interest was great, and that in- 
terest centered in two things. It centered in the im- 
pulse that this man had received, the strong impulse for 
knowledge, and love of knowledge. For no man was 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 25 

more enthusiastic than our dear brother in seeking after 
knowledge. And wherever I go I have the same ex- 
perience. And some are here to-day who have the ten- 
derest recollections of his enthusiasm, of his earnestness 
and of his untiring work in the class room. He was 
eminently a teacher and an instructor. He delighted 
to impart that which he had ; felt that he was a teacher 
and to every one he was his hero. Not only was he a 
a great teacher, but when he came in the presence of 
the young, I am glad to say that he never felt out of 
sympathy with them. That is the bane and the great 
mistake of teachers, to get out of sympathy with the 
young. He never did ; he always was young in feeling 
and heart, and entered into the sympathies with the 
young. 

He was not only a great teacher, but he was a great 
teacher in many important ways, and he was a great 
teacher through the public press. Is it not known to 
you all that Dr. Brown was not only a constant, but a 
voluminous, contributor to the pages of the public press, 
and especially along particular lines of work ? He did 
not dabble much in the petty things that so much occu- 
py the minds of men, but he felt that if he could impart 
an idea that would add to the material advantage of the 
people, that was his field of labor. And I am sure that 
I carry the conviction with me, and you, my hearers, in 
your own minds carry the conviction which I entertain, 
that through the press he has reached multitudes of peo- 
ple in this state greatly to their advantage. 

But I must draw these remarks to a close with a sin- 
gle thought, and that is, that the Doctor, so eminent in 
science, was remarkable in his powers of inculcation of 
truth. He did not rest in this alone. He was discrim- 
inating enough to know that the truths of science were 
not the highest truths of the universe. He looked not 



26 DR. BYLAND T. BROWN. 

upon science as the absolute and sole guide of life, but 
as the great basis of human prosperity ; of the tempo- 
rary prosperities of man. But he had a view of a better 
life. The Doctor was not only profound in the sciences 
of this earth that contribute wealth for man, but he knew 
the science of God. He was a theologian. He was a 
theologian of no ordinary power. I can assure you, 
from a long acquaintance, and from hundreds of con- 
versations with him, that his views of this universe, 
looking at it simply from the stand-point of science, 
were broad and comprehensive, and it was a serious 
view. 

Now the point of science to-day is, that it is sufficient 
for all the uses of life ; that if we just know ourselves — 
know ourselves as physical beings — that is sufficient for 
us. Dr. Brown held no such view as that. He never 
divorced science from religion. His religious thought 
penetrated all his scientific work. And so it is when 
the Doctor came to the close of life, and as he was go- 
ing down upon the shady side of the hill of life, upon 
which many of us here are descending, this religious 
knowledge, this religious truth of his life, which had 
dominated him all through his life, grew and grew in 
importance, as it ought to grow. I think as men near 
the goal of life to which their steps are tending, thev 
ought to rise in beauty and grandness. As the Psalm- 
ist expresses it : " Mark the perfect man ; and behold 
the upright; for the end of that man is peace." And 
as a Proverb of Solomon says : "The path of the just is 
as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto 
the perfect day." And so it was with our brother ; and 
when he came near to the close of life, he was much 
like Sir Walter Scott, that man who had entranced the 
world with the beauties of his creation, and who was 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 27 

called "The Wizard of the North," because of the witch- 
eries of his style and of the fascination of his stories. 

When he was approaching the close of life he asked 
his son-in-law to read in the book. "What book 
shall I read in?" inquired Mr. Lockhart. "There is 
but one book, and that is the Bible." 

"And I read," said Mr. Lockhart, "the beginning 
of the 14th chapter of John, ' In my Father's house are 
many mansions ; if it were not so, I would have told 
you. I go to prepare a place for you. 

"'And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I 
am, there ye may be also.' " 

Such was Dr. Brown's view. He never separated 
his religion, his hope, his faith in God, from his scien- 
tific investigations. And so he stands before us to- 
day. 

I am glad to speak of him in this light. He was a 
man of faith and a man of science at the same time. 
Showing that a man may be a man of faith, may be a 
man of God, and still be a man searching into the se- 
cret recesses of nature's laboratories, and finding God 
shining out in these manifestations of himself as well as 
in his word. 

And so he walked with God. And God took him, 
took him in a good, ripe old age, leaving us an example 
of unselfishness in life, unselfishness in the pursuit of 
science, unselfishness in his labors among men. And 
to-day I feel like adopting the words of the prophet, 
with which I close; "Let me die the death of the 
righteous, and let my last end be like his.*' 

Dr. McNab — "Dr. Brown's relation to the Science 
and Practice of Medicine," is the next theme to which we 
invite your attention. It was thought eminently proper 
that Dr. Fletcher should be invited to talk to us on that 



28 DR- RYLAND T. BROWN. 

subject. Dr. Fletcher and Dr. Brown were associated 
together in the original faculty of the first Medical Col- 
lege that was founded in this state. Dr. Fletcher will 
now address you. 

Dr. William B. Fletcher — I feel it indeed an 
honor to be invited here to speak a word, although I 
can add nothing scarcely to that which has been said 
pertaining to our departed friend. For has not nearly 
all been said when we see Dr. Brown represented as he 
was, a Christian in all that the word implies, and on the 
other hand that he was eminent in all the various de- 
partments of science? 

He must have been a good physician. He was a 
good physician. He tried in all his life to imitate the 
Good Physician. 

I was acquainted with Dr. Brown but comparatively 
few years of his life. It was during the time after he 
came to Indianapolis, and had quit the general practice 
of medicine ; but }^et we were associated together as 
teachers in the Indiana Medical College, and by that 
means I had frequent opportunities of talking with him, 
or rather listening to him in detailing his experience as 
a medical practitioner, as a young man way back in 
1830, or about the time he graduated. 

He had studied medicine under the great Daniel 
Drake at Cincinnati, a man who, like Dr. Brown, 
seemed to have unbounded powers of accumulating 
knowledge. A man of wonderful memory and wonder- 
ful precision. A man who loved to observe nature and 
whose teacher nature was. Dr. Brown had had cer- 
tainly most wonderful and varied experiences as a 
medical practitioner before he gave it up and turned his 
attention mostly to teaching the other branches of 
science. It would take too long to detail the many in- 
teresting points that I well remember ; for were I to 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



29 



talk as many hours as I propose to take minutes, I cer- 
tainly could not add one whit to his memory. 

Dr. Brown's delight seemed to be in following the 
direct teachings of nature. He did read books, modern 
and ancient, but he derived his knowledge from per- 
sonal observation more than any other man I have ever 
met. Therefore Dr. Brown was really about thirty or 
forty years in advance of his profession, and things that 
people would laugh at him about, thirty or forty years 
ago, have all been realized. Dr. Brown spent his time 
as a physician more in preventing disease- probably 
than he did in trying to merely follow the details of a 
daily practitioner. If he visited a family, as he told me 
many years ago, in a swamp, and found them suffering 
from malaria, he did not think it his duty to visit that 
family two or three times a da}^, week in and week out, 
and give them medicine, and pay no attention to the 
cause of the disease ; his effort was to move the family 
from the swamp and get them on to higher land, and in a 
better situation, healthier surroundings. He realized 
the germ theory of disease as held at the present day, 
not only in that but in all other things. He was con- 
stantly a student as to causation. He wanted to know 
the cause of a thing and learn the processes, and he 
certainly did make a great many very wonderful discov- 
eries. At least they have been pronounced wonderful 
since discovered by other persons. 

Dr. Brown was a Christian in every sense of the word, 
and hence his extreme modesty. He was not thrusting 
himself upon the public. He was not thrusting his 
knowledge upon the people, further than it would do the 
public good. It was not put forth as a matter to herald 
Dr. Brown's fame, but put forth as a matter to do some- 
body good. That was my observation of the man in all 
that he did. 



3<D DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

As has been said, there is scarcely a county in the 
state of Indiana, or a township, or a town, or a village, 
but where you will find young physicians, and physi- 
cians that are now getting gray, who derived their first 
and best precepts from the instruction of Dr. Brown, 
when he was a medical teacher. 

If he taught physiology he did not tell the students 
merely the dry details of the subject without comment, 
but he followed it through. Physiology was the science 
of living; it was hygiene. And he taught the young 
men how to live themselves, and how to help others to 
live and help them to live well ; to help them to live 
better lives physically and better lives spiritually. He 
never delivered a lecture in an ordinary sort of way ; he 
jumped into the spirit of it so that other men would lis- 
ten and remember. And, therefore, you will find 
physicians all over the state of Indiana, who remember 
those lessons and who are regarded in the community 
as leading men, who will tell you that their first pre- 
cepts of Christianity and medicine were derived from 
the instruction of Dr. Brown in the medical college. 

It is only a few weeks ago I was visiting a county in 
the southern part of the state, at one of those out of the 
way places where there are no railroads, or telephones, 
or telegraph to molest us, and I was surprised upon go- 
ing into a physician's office to find a gentleman whom I 
had not met before ; an elderly man, I should think 
sixty years of age, and although the town about was 
rather dilapidated and unprepossessing, that office was 
a picture of intelligence, neatness and comfort, and 
hence that indicated a thoughtful student and a happy 
man. Every corner had its press and its butterflies and 
its beetles, and in a little case was a collection of pre- 
historic relics picked up in the neighborhood. And I 
looked with much surprise at such things in that part of 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



31 



the country. He said to me, " You are surprised." 
" So I am," I replied, " I did not know you were in- 
terested in these things. But I have never known a 
man who devoted his mind to such matters, but what 
was really a good man." 

He told me then, " Old Dr. Brown was my teacher r 
and called my attention to these things, and he told me 
the very thing you have said just now — that a man who 
devotes himself to these little beautiful things and can see 
beauty in the smallest moss, and in the minutest beetle, 
as well as in the giant relics of pre-historic lives, must be 
a good man." He said, " I have followed this as one of 
his precepts, devoting my time, when not practicing 
medicine, in making this collection and seeing beauty 
in every one of them/' 

A physician must be a close observer of nature. Dr. 
Brown was a successful physician on account of that 
wonderful power of studying minute things, and of 
adapting the simple things of nature to the cure of dis- 
ease. I don't think he ever wrote a great many pre- 
scriptions. I don't think he had an abiding faith in the 
materia medica, but what there was good in it he knew 
full well and how to use it. And he could manage his 
cases because of his appreciation of surrounding condi- 
tions. He was a good physician, and I might end there, 
but I want to say one word more in regard to the per- 
sistence of his adherence to what he found to be right. 
When a thing was right in his mind it was settled : and 
I do not know of anything that Dr. Brown hated on 
the face of the earth, except a lie or a mean thing, 
seen in all its contagiousness and surroundings. 

It came to a time in the Indiana Medical College when 
there came up the question whether women should be 
admitted to its classes. One or two women had already 
graduated from the college, or had been students 



32 



DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 



there, and it came up as a question of policy. This was 
in 1869 or 1870, or-'perhaps as late as 1872. It became 
a question of policy before the faculty whether they 
should admit women or not, and whether persons of 
color should be admitted. There was scarcely any, per- 
haps one or two of the faculty that were decidedly op- 
posed to it ; thought that it was wrong ; that women 
had no business to study medicine ; and that negroes 
had no right to study medicine, to graduate. The ma- 
jority of the faculty thought it was all right for them to 
study medicine, but not in that college ; that it would 
be detrimental to the institution financially, if ever they 
allowed women to attend the college. 

Dr. Brown talked two or three times upon it, and per- 
sisted in saying that if they were not admitted he would 
leave the college. He did not make it as a threat at 
all, but just said that he could not retain his position, or 
would not retain his position, in a college where he 
thought so great a wrong was committed. He was 
voted down. It was voted at that time that women 
could not attend a medical college, and Dr. Brown re- 
tired upon that. 

He was speaking of it but a few months ago, that he 
had lived to witness a change in the minds of all that 
faculty and the public generally, that women could 
study medicine if they wanted to, and practice medicine 
if they wanted to, and it was right for them to do so. 
His principle was a financial loss to him. The princi- 
ple was that he would not yield even so small a point, 
where he knew he was right. He would continue in 
the right even at the sacrifice of financial considerations. 

That illustrates him as a man in .every point. He 
would not yield, or allow any financial consideration to 
cause him to do that which his conscience considered 
the least bit wrong. They would say, "It is a question 



MEMOEIAL SERA^ICES. 33 

of policy." He would reply, "I do not know policy. I 
do know the right. It is right to do so ; it is wrong to 
do the other way." 

Dr. Brown as a physician was a charitable man 
throughout. I believe that most of his services in life 
as a physician had really been given to people to help 
them on. Wherever he could say a word, or give a 
word of instruction, it was to make them better. He 
labored hard among the poor. He never turned a poor 
man from his door who applied to him night or day, 
when he was a practitioner of medicine ; but he attend- 
ed to their wants without financial consideration enter- 
ing his mind. And like Crab, the good old English 
doctor, who followed the same plan of a good and godly 
life, of whom it was said : 

" What though the wretched poor shall claim thine aid, 
They can not pay thee, yet thou shalt be paid." 

And Dr. Brown is now paid. 

Dr. McNab — I believe all present will appreciate a 
song from Brother Jameson, therefore I will request 
him to sing for us. 

Elder Love H. Jameson — I will sing a song that 
will be regarded as pointing out the near approach of 
the end of life on the part of old persons. Our dear 
Brother Brown has passed over, and you may rest as- 
sured, my friends, that I feel I am not long behind him. 
I have known him fifty-six years, having become ac- 
quainted with him 1834, anc * have known him up to the 
end of his life. I can fully and heartily concur in.every 
word that I have heard to-day, and I will venture one 
thing, however, in addition to Dr. Fletcher's remarks. 
While Dr. Brown was a successful physician (and in 
the early part of his public life he was a very successful 
one, and devoted himself to his profession most earnest- 
3 



34 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

ly), the practice of medicine was never pleasant to him. 
I saw him one day when news came of the death of a 
young lady that he had had in charge, the daughter of 
Jesse Holton. I thought the Doctor would break down. 
It almost prostrated him to see his friends dying under 
his hands and when he could not help them. He could 
not stand that. He had a sympathetic heart, although 
he made no great display of it. But I will sing : 

"I am bound for the mansions of glory on high," etc. 

Dr. McNab — "Dr. Brown's Work for the Opportu- 
nities and Privileges for Women." Mrs. Mary E. 
Haggartwill discuss this phase of Dr. Brown's work. 

Speaking of "Dr. Brown as an advocate of equal 
privileges and opportunities for women," Mrs. Haggart 
said : 

Mr. Chairman and Friends — I will not now attempt 
to give other than a very brief generalized statement, 
depending in the main upon my own memory for the 
facts and incidents relating to this special sphere of Dr. 
Brown's life-work. I am well aware, however, that if 
each woman could speak whose life has been deepened, 
broadened and strengthened, through the encouraging 
sympathy and personal endeavors of this truly just and 
noble man, material for a large and interesting volume 
of reminiscences would be produced ; one that would 
stand as a fitting testimonial of the priceless value of 
the earnest helpfulness of this honest friend of woman. 
Truly, it can be said of him, regarding his attitude to- 
ward woman — her right to equal political privileges 
with man, and her lawful inheritance from Heaven of a 
commission to do whatever God has given her the abil- 
ity to do — as the Apostle hath said, " Being dead, yet 
he speaketh." 

If practical Christianity, cultivated intelligence, re- 






MEMORIAL SERVICES. 35 

fined manners, sound judgment, great breadth of learn- 
ing and systematic order in the arrangement of every- 
day work, surpass in greatness and accomplishment 
less disciplined yet brilliant powers — then the life-work 
of him whose memory we are here to reverently cherish, 
has all through the many years of his wide activities, 
had in it the very presence of God, and will yet bless 
other generations through its exhaustless influence. 

Like a true philosopher, or a wise and accurate judge, 
in looking over the field of human attainments, he saw 
with unerring vision the disadvantages women are com- 
pelled to overcome in every avenue of life where intel- 
lectual endeavor is the main essential to success. With 
an alert and fine perception of justice he invariably 
made up his estimates of the comparative merits and 
value of the work of man and woman in the higher 
realms of literature, art, religion, the sciences and phi- 
lanthropy : not by viewing them as attained from a start- 
ing point of equal opportunities and advantages, but 
from fair considerations and calculations of what such 
comparative values might have been, if women entered 
upon these larger fields of effort with all obstacles re- 
moved with the same care for them, that all disadvan- 
tages are cleared from the pathway of men. 

He was pre-eminently capable of detaching this great 
question from present prejudicial surroundings, and of 
arriving at conclusions concerning it from a view of 
what it should be under exclusively right conditions ; 
consequently he always saw the truth regarding it in 
straight lines, and never through the roundabout 
methods of expediency. While he was abundantly 
supplied with great practical capacity to see things as 
they are, he had that still greater and finer endowment 
of seeing things as they ought to be. Having cultivated 
the mental habit of generalizing his range of study, he 



36 DK RYLAXD T. BROWN. • 

became so broad in the scope of his information that it 
would have been impossible for him to reach ultimate 
judgment upon woman's legitimate place in the world 
through the narrower inspection of a specialist, whose 
methods are always foreign to generalization and never 
go over the whole ground of general welfare. Having 
been proven to be on the right side of everv reform 
started and ended during his lifetime, is it not fair to 
assume that he was on the right side of all those other 
great movements which he had espoused and which are 
not yet consummated? 

His advocacy of woman's equal right with man to 
every blessing that can come through civil, intellectual 
and political freedom, began as early in his life as his 
promulgation of the wrongs of American slavery. 
Through a legitimate line of reasoning he reached the 
logical sequence that humanity is a brotherhood ; that 
God and nature have made no distinction between the 
sexes in natural necessity, individual right and respon- 
sibility, civil and political privileges. He was, from the 
very origin of its organized existence, nearly forty 
years ago, identified with the Indiana Woman Suffrage 
Association, and gave help and encouragement to the 
pioneer workers as they traveled and spoke throughout 
the state. In the early days of this much persecuted 
movement he was mainly instrumental in bringing 
Frances D. Gage, a grand, great souled Christian 
woman, to this city to speak to the people on this sub- 
ject ; and he was more than gratified to witness the 
masterly ability with which she answered all the hard 
questions concerning state-craft and political sciences, 
which Major Gordon rapidly propounded to her at that 
meeting. 

While Dr. Brown was Professor of Natural Sciences 
in the Northwestern Christian University, the college 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 37 

curriculum was so arranged that a modification of the 
regular course required for a degree was made es- 
pecially for girls, and denominated the woman's course. 
To this feature of the college regulations he took most 
emphatic exceptions ; standing as ever for the right, and 
urging fair play for girls and women, in securing an 
education. Once, while he was seriously demanding a 
change that would admit girls to equal opportunities 
with the boys, Ovid Butler objected, declaring woman's 
mental incapacity to undergo the intellectual strain re- 
quired by a full study. It turned out, however, that the 
change was secured, for which Dr. Brown so valiantly 
contended, and Ovid Butler's daughter was the first one 
to avail herself of the privilege of being a practical refu- 
tation of her father's erroneous conceptions of woman's 
mental incapacity ; she being the first woman graduate 
under the full course of training. Our beloved and well 
tried friend was especially enthusiastic over his class in 
geology, and adopted the custom during vacations of 
taking long walking excursions over the country for the 
class in practical observation and study. Before the ad- 
mission of girls to this class he had never returned from 
one of these expeditions with the boys in company. 
One by one they were overcome with fatigue, and one by 
one they took trains or other easy conveyances for home, 
leaving the grand old master to return on foot alone. We 
who have heard him speak of this matter will never for- 
get the fine kindling of pride in his manner ; the gentle 
lighting up of his calm, clear eyes ; nor the radiant 
glow which beamed over his mild, intellectual face, 
when he told how every expedition which included the 
girls of his class returned in full, without a tired boy in 
it ; the girls always enduring with fresh animation to 
the end, and the boys, ashamed of being outdone by 
them, holding out to complete the journey. A tireless 



38 DR- RYLAND T. BROWS. 

educator of the young, he possessed that magnificent 
repose of mind that could rest and grow on its own 
quiet exercise, while it stamped its lasting impress upon 
the outside world. He made the most of every oppor- 
tunity to affirm the natural ability of women to cope 
with men in every sphere of mental application and ac- 
quirement. He believed that all practical life problems 
find an easy solution when measured by that supremely 
equitable standard, the Golden Rule. 

When he was county examiner for the public schools 
of Fayette county, he issued the first certificate ever 
granted to a woman in that county, and he was well 
pleased to rehearse the fact that her grade was above 
the average of his brethren in the teacher's profession. 
He had such complete possession of himself through an 
all-sided education that he could, in those early days, 
even, in such rare instances of woman's capability, take 
them as average specimens of what an educated woman- 
hood could be, instead of looking upon them as excep- 
tional freaks of humanity. 

Many years ago, during a national convention of the 
Sons of Temperance, of which organization he was a 
prominent member, he introduced a resolution to admit 
women to a division of the Order ; and though this in- 
novation was not made without a struggle for the tran- 
quil letting alone of the old regime, still it was trium- 
phantly secured, and to Dr. Brown, more than to any 
or all other agencies combined, did the women of this 
Order owe their thanks for the privilege of enrolling as 
members under the banner of the Sons of Temperance. 

Sixteen years ago, when that gentle reinforcement to 
the power of Christ's kingdom among men, the Chris- 
tian Woman's Board of Missions, was organized in the 
denomination of which he was a member, he was the 
first to strengthen its timidity with eloquent words of 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 39 

encouragement, and to give it a hearty Godspeed on its 
journey on that high and upward road to the goal where 
peace and purity build their citadels, and invite the 
world up to high communion upon the sublime eleva- 
tions of Christian fellowship. 

Some twelve or fifteen years ago, w r hen the Indiana 
Medical College concluded that it could not take rank 
with the more barbarous institutions of this kind without 
excluding women and negroes from its possible and 
probable matriculants, Dr. Brown was the only member 
of the faculty who had the courage to openly protest 
against a proceeding of such palpable unfairness. 
Though occupying the important chair of physiology, 
he informed the other members of the faculty that when 
they decided to enact a law compelling Indiana women 
to seek for medical training in other states, he would 
resign his position. The college faculty, however, felt 
that the burden upon its dignity was more than it could 
bear, and the final decree was formulated which said 
that women and negroes must go. Upon the very same 
table where this edict of injustice was written, Dr. 
Brown penned his resignation and then took up his hat 
and walked out. History tells us that when Galileo 
brought forward the telescope to demonstrate the truth 
of his great discovery, his opponents refused to look 
through it. Here was an example of history repeating 
itself. Here was a second Galileo seeing with a proph- 
et's keen vision the truih as it is ; while his colleagues 
were standing, relatively, a hundred years behind him, 
in the meshes of an unjustifiable prejudice. As soon as 
this heroic action became known to the public, the 
women of this city who were interested in holding every 
inch of vantage ground for their own uplifting and ad- 
vancement, immediately circulated petitions asking the 
faculty of the medical college to rescind their decision. 



40 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

These petitions were signed by nearly every well-known 
business and professional man in the city. A call was 
published for a public meeting, which was held in Mrs. 
Z. G. Wallace's parlors. At that meeting resolutions 
were adopted indorsing Dr. Brown's loyalty to princi- 
ple, and conveying to him in the warmest terms the 
gratitude and appreciation of those whose cause he so 
steadfastly represented. A committee was appointed 
to prepare a constitution for an Equal Suffrage Club, 
which was then and there organized, and which event- 
ually numbered about five hundred members. Dr. 
Brown was a charter member of the organization, and 
was always ready to do valuable work in whatever ca- 
pacity the society chose to appoint him. 

The very same spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion to 
principle which actuated him, and mingled with every 
sentiment of good in his heroic soul, and made him a 
fearless champion of equal and exact justice, secured to 
the men of this nation their civil, religious and political 
liberties, and bequeathed to us all as a people the man- 
ifold blessings which ever flow from the beneficent do- 
minion of free institutions. 

While Dr. Brown was in Washington, filling, un- 
der the appointment by the government, his position 
as chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture, he 
kept his interest in woman's work alive and forceful. 
There, during the hours when not officially employed, 
he found time to conduct a spirited correspondence 
with Isaac Errett, editor of the Christian Standard, 
arguing for woman's right and freedom to teach in 
the church. He saw no conformity to the example 
and precepts of his divine Master, in preventing 
women mentally and spiritually qualified, from filling 
the sacred office of minister or teacher. He believed 
that if divine authority was against it, this authority 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 4 1 

could not be set aside for special cases. He believed 
that it was not more lawful for women to teach 
in India and China, than in America. He did not 
reason that because Paul said, " Suffer not a woman 
to teach," therefore, Christ, the great head of the 
church, had, by Paul, so spoken for himself and all his 
disciples, for all time to come. He believed that it was 
possible for Paul to express individual opinions con- 
cerning the local congregational methods of his church 
societies, without holding Christ responsible for those 
opinions. As that doctrine which embodied the great 
esssentials of the Christian religion included male and 
jemale, in a oneness of equality that centered in Christ 
and not Paul, as the head, he believed that this doc- 
trine once delivered to the saints was superior to Paul, 
even as it is the supreme epitome of every other dis- 
ciple'^ faith. 

Analyzing the situation of the primitive church so- 
cieties which the Apostles had organized, he understood 
how Paul in his anxiety for the good name of the new 
religion of the Nazerene, amid the prevailing customs 
of the times, could say that a woman should not teach. 
He saw that the same law, which made it right to fit a 
woman to teach a heathen or a barbarian, must also re- 
cognize the legality of her commission to teach a civil- 
ized sinner the way of righteousness. He saw that if 
there was transgression of the law in taking away the 
barriers for all women in this sacred calling, then the 
whole law was completely set at naught by removing 
these barriers for difew women. 

The absolute consistency of the life of this revered, 
departed benefactor, is eminently beyond impeachment. 
Ever full rounded, high minded, deep thinking and 
generous hearted. The women of this generation have 
lost a friend whose place none other can fill. Characters 



42 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

of such grandeur and of such collossal strength and in- 
tegrity are not many times repeated in a century. His 
memory will be cherished in the hearts of all women 
whose paths have been made easier because he walked 
in all worthiness before them. The good he has done 
for woman, and through her for humanity, will in the 
highest sense live after him, and energize the activities of 
coming men with the mildness, the sympathy, the gen- 
erosity and the justice of his far-reaching, God-approved, 
sentiments. 

Dr. McNab — "Dr. Brown as an Advocate of Re- 
forms." Brother Hughes will talk to us on that sub- 
ject. 

Elder Jasper S. Hughes — There has been so much 
said this afternoon about Dr. Brown, and the wonder- 
ful depth of the man, it would seem strange that he 
would have ever been accused of being a man of one 
idea ; a man whose life was so filled with strange and 
beautiful pictures of industry and intellectual judgment 
along so mam- lines. But the most and best that has 
been said this afternoon has been of his moral and 
literary achievements. Let us look beneath them all 
and see that, in the character and life of Dr. R. T. 
Brown, which to me is the most beautiful and telling 
characteristic of all. 

On all moral questions his decisions were quick and 
in a moment ; on all intellectual or scientific investiga- 
tions they were prolonged, studied, worked out by de- 
tail. This maxim seems to have weighed in his life ; 
that in matters of conscience the first answer, the first 
thought is always the best ; in matters pertaining to pru- 
dence or science, the last one. That points the man's 
whole life and character. 

Dr. Brown was never fooled, that ever I heard of, but 
once. He told a storv of what occurred when he was a 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 43 

medical student. In Cincinnati, where he was studying 
medicine, he took a frozen fish and threw it into a glass 
of water, and presently the fish showed signs of life. 
He went before the faculty and told them of the im- 
portant scientific phenomenon he had discovered. And 
Dr. Brown laughingly said of the fish story, " That was 
one time I was fooled." 

Dr. Brown could discern between a question of 
conscience, and a question of prudence. It has ever 
been the wiley plan of the Deceitful One to persuade 
men over from a question of conscience to a question of 
prudence. In the garden of Eden, when God put forth 
His first commandment it was prohibitory. For He 
began His administration among men as a prohibition- 
ist. He said, "Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of the 
tree in the midst of the garden." Satan appears and 
tries to draw that question of conscience over into a 
question of intellect. "Eat the fruit," he says, " and 
be wise as the gods, knowing good and evil/' That 
has been the wiley plan of Satan ever since, to carry 
over a question of conscience into a question of pru- 
dence. 

Between questions of prudence and conscience Dr. 
Brown was never known to hesitate a minute. Stand- 
ing in Washington city, at one time, as he afterward 
told me, he saw a slave upon the block with his poor 
hands tied upon his servile bosom, and the auctioneer 
was calling off the sale. 

In after years Dr. Brown said, pointing to the spot, 
"There is the spot where I saw the negro upon the 
block for sale, and there I promised my God I would 
fight against the institution as long as I lived." The 
result you know. 

It is that in the solution of every great and true man's 
life, that he discerns between the question of conscience 



44 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

and the question of prudence. It seems to me that was 
the great point in the life of Dr. Brown. With all his 
research in the sciences, all his intellectual grasp, and 
the minutia of his investigations into details, he was 
correct upon all moral principles. But one thing he 
did at the start, and that was to take his stand by the 
right, believing with Wendell Phillips, that He who 
made this universe saw to it that the right should always 
be the highest expediency. That is it. 

Dr. Brown believed it, and that made his life beauti- 
ful and wonderful. The right is always the highest ex- 
pediency, and He who made this universe ordained that 
it should be the highest expediency. 

But he was such a child-like man ; there was some- 
thing wonderfully beautiful about that. I have no doubt 
he cherished in his memory a recollection of Charles 
Sumner, who, when he was reproached for the littleness 
of the company with him, said, simply and grandly, " So 
it ever was." 

Like the man at the bottom of a well who can see the 
stars in the heavens shine out at noon-tide, while those 
who stand in the fullness of the noon-tide look, but see 
none of those distant worlds. 

How beautiful is that thought. It was the thought of 
Dr. Brown's life. And so he was an interested worker 
in all these reforms. He was always watching for the 
truth ; and his conscience was always ready to see a 
point, which fact explains his wonderful career. 

It has not been mentioned here that Dr. Brown was 
an ardent member of the Prohibition party, as he was a 
great worker in the old Free-soil party. He represented 
that little party, if I am not mistaken, the last meeting 
here I attended. It was the Prohibition Party Club, 
and on his way home he fell down, or had to sit down 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



45 



and rest. I think that was the last meeting he ever at- 
tended. 

Some one has said he was twenty or thirty years 
ahead of his medical profession in medicine and science. 
And Mrs. Haggart told us he was fifty or one hundred 
years ahead of the times in the women's movement. 
And all who have spoken have given Dr. Brown an 
advanced mind. 

May it not turn out that he saw the light far ahead 
when he ran for mayor of this city, a man who was bet- 
ter fitted for the Presidency of the United States than 
many who have occupied that seat, with ninety-nine 
votes? Was he not looking through all this din, and 
through this prejudice, and through this glamour, and 
seeing the serene light ahead of him? 

It is right, and God will see to it that it is the highest 
expediency. There stands before you that remarkable 
man, a man of such broad sentiments, such broad and 
true feeling, such broad and true heart, entering into 
every reform for the last thirty or forty years, in ad- 
vance, in the lead of all reformers. 

Sometimes men have thought he was too advanced 
in politics, or too active, but as Brother Van Buskirk 
has said, all of Dr. Brown's politics were religion. 
They were -part of his religion, that is true. It was 
part of his religion, all that he did in politics. 

He was like Cromwell, who said they were insepa- 
rable. 

" If it is true," said he, "that governments of this 
world are separate and independent from the interest 
of Christ, may my soul never enter into their course." 
So felt Dr. Brown ; so stood he. The good man is 
gone, but has left us his noble example. Like the wiz- 
ards in the well, he looked into the future, separating 



46 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

between the two classes of men in this world, those who 
look back, and those who look forward. 

This is a great distinction and generalization, which 
Dr. Brown personally marked, for his eye was ever set 
upon the future and the directions in which he worked. 

Then I wish to add just a line. It is from Goethe, the 
great German poet, and which I think Dr. Brown did 
love to hear, as he did love to hear everything good. 

" Rest not, life is flowing by, 
Make a mark before you die ; 
Something mighty and sublime, 
Left behind to conquer time." 

Dr. McNab — Our committee invited Judge Howe to 
participate in the exercises of this evening, and I will 
now ask Judge Howe to address you on his own theme. 
The committee has not given him a topic on which to 
speak. 

Judge Daniel Waite Howe — Brothers and Friends, 
each speaker has left less to say for those who follow, and 
I will detain vou but a very few moments. I am asked 
to represent, upon this occasion, Oriental Lodge Free 
and Accepted Masons, of which Brother Brown was a 
member at the time of his death. But, as I was a near 
neighbor and an intimate friend, I do not wish to limit 
mvself exclusively to a review of his Masonic life. This 
meeting is to me a very impressive one, and the design 
of it seems to me very appropriate. There are gathered 
together here men of various parties and denominations, 
who differ widely from each other upon many subjects, 
but we all unite in paying sincere tribute to our de- 
parted friend and brother. Surely there is a great 
brotherhood, a brotherhood of men greater than any of 
the denominations, or parties, or orders represented 
here. A great brotherhood which does not stop to in- 
quire what church, or party, or order a man belongs to, 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 47 

but looks only to the man himself, and estimates him 
according to his worth to society. In that great brother- 
hood, 

" Rank is but the guinea stamp, 
The man's the gowd for a' that." 

And as pure gold is current everywhere, so a pure 
and upright man like Dr. Brown is current everywhere 
among all men. 

As I said, I was called upon this occasion to speak 
for Oriental Lodge, of which Dr. Brown was a member 
at the time of his death. He had been a member for 
over fifty years. He was at one time the Master of a 
Lodge at Crawfordsville. He was the oldest member 
and the oldest Mason in Oriental Lodge, and a very 
faithful attendant upon its meetings. He was present, 
I believe, at the last regular meeting before his death, 
and always occupied an honored station there ; and was 
always called upon, when he was present, to make the 
opening prayer. Masonry teaches us that in youth we 
ought to occupy our minds in the attainment of useful 
knowledge, and in manhood we should apply our knowl- 
edge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, 
to our neighbors and ourselves, so that in old age we 
may enjoy the happy reflections consequent upon a 
well-spent life, and die in the hope of a glorious immor- 
tality. I know of no man who, more than our departed 
brother, fulfilled this Masonic teaching. The Bible was 
his trestle-board. He practiced the cardinal Masonic 
virtues, temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice ; 
he held fast to the great tenets of friendship, morality 
and brotherly love ; and, as long as I knew him, I be- 
lieve that he tried to walk uprightly before God and 
man. He honored Masonry, as he honored every or- 
der, society and station to which he belonged. He 



4 8 DR- KYLAND T. BROWN. 

honored it because his life was a continual exemplifica- 
tion of all that was good and pure and noble in it. 

I have often thought of him as a striking example of 
a man whose life was devoted to the advancement of 
his fellow-men. He never acquired great fame or 
wealth for himself, but all his life was devoted to doing 
something which he conceived to be for the good of his 
fellows. In the profession of medicine, in education, 
in agriculture, in geology, he did a great deal for the 
advancement of scientific knowledge, and to make 
known and develop the vast resources of the state of 
Indiana. At the same time he never lost sight of the 
moral advancement of society. 

He was one of those plodding, unobtrusive men, 
never seeking to thrust himself into notoriety, but always 
ready to discharge the duties of the hour. Above all, 
he was a thoroughly conscientious and earnest man, 
who never sacrificed principle to expediency or self-in- 
terest. 

We can not estimate merely by- their fame the worth 
of such men to societv. Their names may not go upon 
the pages of history like the names of great generals, 
or statesmen, or philosophers, or poets. But their in- 
fluence is felt long after they have passed away, and 
their names have been forgotten, like those teachings of 
childhood that, long after we have forgotten when or 
how we learned them, quicken our consciences and in- 
fluence our lives. 

You may not believe in everything that such men be- 
lieve, but you can not but respect their integrity. Some- 
how, society always finds out the worth of such men, 
and when it does many occasions are sure to arise when 
their services are in demand. They are useful men in 
even- community, and are indispensable to its moral 
advancement. 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 49 

There is one little incident connected with Dr. Brown 
that I would like to relate, because it is to me one of the 
pleasant recollections of my life. I had known him 
intimately for many years. I also knew intimately 
another elderly gentleman, Judge Frank Hardin, then 
and still living near Glenn's Valley. The two men 
were radically opposite, both in religion and politics. 
They had each known of the other for more than fifty 
years, but had never met. Both were old residents of 
the state, and both were deeply versed in geology. It 
occurred to me a few years ago that it would be pleas- 
ant to have them meet. So I arranged to take Dr. 
Brown down and spend the day with Judge Hardin. 
The Judge was expecting us. It was warm weather, 
and when we got there he had a lot of tables set under 
the trees in his front yard, loaded down with geological 
specimens. As soon as I had introduced them they be- 
gan talking geology, but, as I didn't know anything 
about geology, their talk was so much Hebrew to me. 
After dinner we went to visit an old moraine on White 
river, near Glenn's Valley, and they talked some more 
geology. But by and by Judge Hardin remarked that 
near by was one of the proposed sites for the capital of 
the state of Indiana. Then they mentioned another site 
near Waverly. One would not do because there were 
no small streams to run the grist mills. The other 
would not do because the banks were too steep for a con- 
venient boat landing. And so the commissioners selected 
Indianapolis because here there were two streams, — 
Eagle Creek and Fall Creek, — to run the mills, and the 
banks of White river were suitable for boat landings. 
Now you may be sure that I pricked up my ears and 
was all attention. 

After that they got to talking about old pioneer times, 
and Dr. Brown made a remark that I shall never for- 
4 



5 o DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

get. He said that when he thought of the many 
changes since his boyhood, the wonderful transforma- 
tions everywhere, the improvements in everything, he 
sometimes wondered if he was the same man. 

There was always a fascination for me in the talk of 
old men recounting the early history of the country, 
and I never listened to such talk with greater delight 
in all my life. I thought as I looked at those two ven- 
erable patriarchs — simple, modest, unassuming — "You 
may not be classed in history as famous men, but vou 
are among the foremost of the foundation layers of a 
great commonwealth, and what you have done for In- 
diana can never be over-estimated." 

Dr. McNab — We have a large number of communi- 
cations from distinguished persons from a distance 
which will no doubt be interesting to us all, and I will 
ask Brother Denny to read them ; after which he will 
speak of " Dr. Brown as a Prohibitionist," that subject 
having been assigned to him in our programme. 

Mr. Denny said : At the opening of these services 
I read a letter from President B. M. Blount, of Butler 
University. I have also letters of sympathy addressed 
to our worthy Sister, Dr. Brown's widow, from the fol- 
lowing named persons : 

Elder E. L. Frazier and wife, of Erie, Pa. 

Elder L. L. Carpenter, of Wabash, Ind. 

Elder Ira J. Chase, lieutenant-governor of Indiana, 
Danville, Ind. 

Austin H. Brown (Dr. Brown's nephew), and wife, of 
Omaha, Neb. 

Dr. J. G. L. Myers, secretary Ind. S. C. T. U., of 
Bloomingdale, Ind. 

Mrs. Helen M. Gougar, of La Fayette, Ind. 

M. E. Shiel, of Louisville, Ky. (formerly editor Mon- 
itor-Journal ^ this city). 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 5 1 

Lodie E. Reed and Mollie G. Hay, of Indianapolis. 

Prof. G. W. Hoss, of Baker University, Baldwin, 
Kan. 

The Central W. C. T. U., of Indianapolis, by Mrs. 
J. E. Pollock, secretary. 

Also, letters addressed to the committee from — 

Elder Aaron Walker, of North Indianapolis, Ind. 

Hon. George W.Julian, of Irvington, Ind. 

Hon. Neal Dow, of Portland, Maine. 

Gen. Samuel F. Carey, of Cincinnati, Ohio. 

It would be to me, a pleasant task, and to you a 
feast, to read all these letters, but the time is so far 
spent, that I can only read the last mentioned three, 
from Dow, Julian and Carey. 

Before I read these letters I will say that, two days 
after the death of Dr. Brown, by direction of the com- 
mittee appointed by the Central Prohibition Club, Hon. 
Neal Dow and Gen. Samuel F. Carey were written to 

as follows : 

Indianapolis, Ind., May 4, 1890. 
Hon. Neal Dow, Portland, Maine: 

My Dear Sir — It becomes my sad duty to inform you of the death 
of another one of that splendid galaxy of Apostles of Temperance 
who, in the 'Forties and 'Fifties, were leaders in the great warfare 
against the liquor curse ; and in which you, and he of whom I write, 
have so long borne a conspicuous and honorable part. 

Dr. By land T. Brown, peacefully ended his noble earthly career 
at his residence in this city, at 2 :55 p. m., May 2, 1890. As a mem- 
ber of, and on behalf of, a committee appointed to make arrange- 
ments for a public memorial service in honor of Dr. Brown, I re- 
spectfully request you to send me, at your earliest convenience, 
such expression as you may desire to make touching his memory, 
to be read on such memorial occasion. 

Most respectfully yours, 

Bobert Denny. 

Indianapolis, Ind., May 4, 1890. 
Gen. Samuel F. Care;/, Cincinnati, Ohio: 

My Dear Sir — As a member of, and on behalf of, a committee 
appointed to make arrangements for a public memorial service in 



52 



DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 



honor of the late Dr. Ryland T. Brown, it becomes my sad duty to 
inform you that his noble and most praiseworthy earthly career 
ended at 2 :55 p. m.. last Friday. May 2d. 1890. His mental faculties 
remained bright and active to the last moment of his natural life. 
Knowing that he and you stood shoulder to shoulder and worked 
together in the great warfare against the liquor curse, in the earlier 
days of the struggle, in favor of that greatest of pending social and 
political reforms, it is desired of you that you will send me, at your 
earliest convenience, such expression touching the memory of Dr. 
Brown as you may see fit to make, to be read upon the occasion of 
such service. Respectfully and truly yours, 

Robert Denny. 

I will now read the answers of these venerable friends 
of Dr. Brown, and also Hon. George \V. Julian's letter. 

Portland, Maine, May 7, 1S90. 
Robert Denny, Esq.: 

Dear Sir — I greatly regret the death of our admirable friend and 
brother, Dr. Ryland T. Brown. 

Just now, when we need power and force and influence in our 
movement, we can illy spare so brave and able a worker in it as 
Dr. Brown was. 

A life a little prolonged would have enabled him to see, I think, 
important results from the great agitation for freedom from the 
liquor traffic, in which he has been so brave, persistent and effective 
a leader and helper. Yours very truly, 

Xeal Dow. 

College Hill, Ohio, May 6, 1S90. 
Robert Denny, Esq.: 

Dear Sir — I have yours of the 4th inst., bringing the sad tidings 
of the death of my dear old friend, Dr. Ryland T. Brown, the last 
of my early associates and co-laborers in the cause of temperance. 
Our intimate acquaintance dates back nearly a half century, and 
his demise leaves me quite alone — a thought which deepens my 
sorrow. AVe last met at the temperance convention in Indianap- 
olis, in December. 1S89. Although extremely aged, he was vigorous 
in body and mind, and participated actively in the business of the 
convention. 

Dr. Brown was a splendid specimen of a self-made man, his op- 
portunities in early life for acquiring an education being meager 
in the extreme. 

In face and features he bore a striking resemblance to Henry 
Clay. It will not be out of place to mention some of his marked 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 



53 



characteristics. He was guileless as a child, a true friend and ge- 
nial companion ; a great lover of his fellow-men and ambitious to 
make them better and happier ; despised all shams and false pre- 
tences ; plain in his dress and manners ; had a kind and helpful 
word for the poorest and most illiterate ; conscientious in all things 
and influenced by deep religious convictions ; made no compro- 
mises with what he believed to be wrong ; earnest, able and elo- 
quent in every cause he espoused. 

His learning was extensive and varied. He was an enthusiast 
in scientific investigations, not in one, but in every department. 
He was a botanist, mineralogist, geologist, chemist, astronomer. 
As an illustration of his fine literary taste, many years ago the 
National Division of the Sons of Temperance, of which he was a 
member, offered a prize of $1,000 for the best new ceremonial for 
the Order. Many prominent literary men were competitors for 
the prize. The committee selected to pass upon the merits of the 
Rituals offered, awarded the larger part of the prize to Dr. Brown, 
selecting portions of several works. 

An enumeration of the virtues and excellencies, the labor per- 
formed in the long, busy and laborious life of our departed brother, 
would fill volumes. 

We thank God that his days were extended beyond four score 
years, and that he was fully prepared and equipped for a still wider 
sphere of usefulness in the life beyond. What is our loss is his 
gain, and this reconciles us to our great bereavement. 

Yours, Samuel F. Carey. 

Irvington, Ind., May 9, 1890. 
Robert Denny, Esq. : 

My Dear Sir — As I am not able to join in the memorial services 
in honor of Dr. Brown, I desire, through you, to bear witness to his 
high character and rare personal worth. He was a versatile and 
many-sided man, who gave his hospitality to various reforms ; but 
in what I have to say it will, perhaps, be appropriate to refer to 
one of these only. As an advocate and champion of the anti-slav- 
ery cause, I have known him since 1848, although I believe his open 
hostility to slavery was proclaimed as early as 1844, when he sup- 
ported James G. Birney for the Presidency. In his temper and 
methods Dr. Brown was not an aggressive reformer. He depre- 
cated personalities, and endeavored, as far as possible, to advance 
his cause without impugning the character or motives of others ; 
but he was thoroughly courageous and unflinching in his loyalty 
to his convictions. Working in a minority had no terrors for him, 
for he felt sure that the majority would ultimately be found on his 



54 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

side. Like every true reformer, he loved the truth better than he 
loved himself, and was ever ready to make himself of no reputa- 
tion for its sake. He was, indeed, a remarkable man. It seemed 
to be his mission in the world to go about doing good, and In- 
crowded into his long life all the beneficent activities which his 
uncommon devotion to humanity could kindle. His influence upon 
the generations of men through which he lived has been extensive- 
ly and savingly felt; while the memory of his good deeds and 
Christian example will long be cherished. 

I am, very truly, yours, Geo. W. Julian. 

The letters I have read are from men of national rep- 
utation — men who are noted and conspicuous as philan- 
thropic advocates of the great reforms that have chal- 
lenged and commanded the attention of the American 
people within the last fifty years. By these letters they 
testify their high appreciation of the character and life- 
work of our departed friend and brother. They are the 
candid and sober utterances of venerable men who know 
they stand at the threshold of eternity. What they 
have written are not idle words of fulsome adulation. 
They are just tributes to the memory of a man whose 
character, worth and work were not fully appreciated 
by the masses of his fellow-citizens while he lived. 

With the reading of these letters I might close and 
take my seat, had not the committee in charge of this 
memorial service made it my duty to speak to you of 
" Dr. Brown as a Prohibitionist." 

Having been in full sympattry and co-operation with 
Brother Brown for forty years past, both in his opposi- 
tion to human slavey and to the traffic in intoxicating 
liquors, and especially in his later advocacy of national 
prohibition of the liquor traffic, it is a pleasure to me to 
perform the part thus assigned to me. 

No sketch of Dr. Brown's life would do full justice to 
his memory, unless special prominence should be given 
to the part he has taken in the organization and 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 55 

strengthening of the Prohibition Party, as the instru- 
mentality through which to secure the abolition of the 
American saloon, by an amendment to the National 
Constitution prohibiting the traffic in intoxicants. And 
it would be in bad taste for any one who had not been 
in full accord with Dr. Brown in his support of that 
party, to speak of his labors in that great movement. 

In this last great struggle for the good of his fellow- 
beings, Dr. Brown acted from purely philanthropic and 
unselfish considerations. He knew it could not bene- 
fit him in a pecuniary sense, nor gain him present 
honor and applause, but the reverse. It was in every 
way a self-sacrificing work for the good of others ; and 
it is well that we now honor his memory for it. 

However well prepared he was for the transition from 
labors to reward, he desired to live, and to help in the 
irrepressible conflict, until this fair land, from ocean to 
ocean, and in its every and remotest parts, should be 
redeemed from the blight of drunkenness. 

With the Psalmist, Dr. Brown held that: " The 
earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof;" (24th 
Psalm), and was opposed to dedicating or surrendering 
to the devil any part of God's heritage in this land of 
gospel light and liberty, 

When Neal Dow says we need the power, force and 
influence of Dr. Brown " in our movement," he refers 
solely to the effort to secure National Prohibition of the 
liquor traffic, through the instrumentality of the Prohi- 
bition Party. Dr. Brown took an earnest and leading 
part in the general organization of that party in 1884, 
and from that time to his death was constant and tire- 
less in laboring with tongue and pen to hasten the ac- 
complishment of the purpose for which that party was 
organized. 

He had watched the attempts to regulate the liquor 



56 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

traffic by license ; to restrict it by taxation ; to expel it 
from limited districts by local option, and by state pro- 
hibition (which is only local option on a large scale). 
In spite of all these expedients he had seen that the ag- 
gregate quantity of intoxicants manufactured and con- 
sumed in the United States had increased far more rap- 
idly than population had increased. Therefore, he be- 
came fully convinced that nothing short of national 
prohibition could ever overcome the monster evil. He 
became satisfied that those interested in the liquor traffic 
could and did, in a large measure, dictate the policies 
and legislation of the two dominant political parties, 
and thereupon he decided to throw all his influence in 
favor of the new prohibition party. 

Although he was radical and firm in his advocacy of 
what he believed to be right, and positive and open in 
his opposition to what he considered detrimental to the 
well-being of humanity, it ought to be said of Dr. 
Brown that he possessed a broad and deep spirit of 
Christian charity, that enabled him to divest himself of 
unkindly feeling toward those whose notions and 
opinions were radically different from his own. No 
matter how earnestly others opposed him in matters re- 
ligious or political, he did not lose his temper, but, 
when called to act with them in any department of duty, 
he treated such opposers with as much courtesy and 
kindness as if they had been at agreement with him in 
every thing. Would to God we could all thus free our- 
selves from feelings and acts of prejudice and resent- 
ment. 

Another noteworthy element in Dr. Brown's dispo- 
sition was his ability to find something to be thankful 
for under the most trying circumstances. A single 
incident must serve to illustrate this characteristic. 

In 1888, when political excitement ran high in this 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 57 

vicinity, I met him one afternoon in the corridor of the 
county court-house, and inquired how it was that he 
was not in attendance at a meeting, then in session, of 
a noted club, of which I knew he had long been an ac- 
tive member. At first my question seemed to agitate 
him somewhat, but directly he smiled pleasantly and 
said: " O, they have disfranchised me; but, thank 
God, they can not rob me of my principles." 

He possessed rare tact as an instructor, in dealing 
with those under his charge. It has been related of 
him that, on one occasion, while teaching a class in 
geology, he arranged specimens on a table, for his use 
in a lecture. A rude person (a student) placed among 
them a fragment of a brick. Dr. Brown proceeded 
with his lecture without seeming to notice the piece of 
brick, taking up each specimen in its order, and ex- 
plaining its qualities and relationships. When he came 
to the brick-bat, he held it up before the class and 
quietly remarked: "This a piece of impudence;" 
and went on as if nothing out of the proper course had 
occurred. 

In all that I have said, it has been no part of my pur- 
pose to obscure, or detract from, Dr. Brown's character 
and labors in the fields of science aud religion. After 
all, his devotion to Bible Christianity was the crowning 
jewel of his life ; and that alone is what enabled him to 
lay hold on Eternal Life. 

Dr. McNab — Mr. Joseph F. Brown, the only sur- 
viving brother of the late Dr. Ryland T. Brown, will 
now read us an original poem, which he has written in 
memory of his brother. 



58 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWX. 

IX MEMORY 

OI" MY BROTHER, DOCTOR RYLAXD T. BROWN, WHO DEPARTED THIS 
LIFE, MAY 2, 1890. 

" Not dead, but gone before." 

— Longfellow. 

Gone where the faded flowers will freshen. 

Blooming never more to fade ; 
Where the shaded sky shall brighten, 

Brighten never more to shade ; 
"Where no burning sun will glow, 

Where the winters cease to chill, 
W T here no tempest wakes the terrors 

Of the wood, or wave, or hill ; 
"Where the morn will dawn in gladness, 

And the noon the joy prolong, 
Where the day-light dies in fragrance, 

Amid the sounds of holy song. 
There, Brother, I hope we'll meet and rest 
W T ith the ransomed and the blest. 

Gone where the hidden wound is healed, 

Where the blighted life re-blooms. 
Where the aged heart, the freshness 

Of its buoyant youth resumes ; 
"Where the Love that here we lavish 

On the withered leaves of time, 
Shall live among the fadeless flowers, 

In an ever June-bright clime : 
Where we'll find the joy of loving 

As we never loved before — 
Loving on, unchilled, unhindered, 

Loving once and ever more. 
There, Brother, I hope we'll meet and rest 
With the ransomed and the blest. 

Gone where no shadows shall bewilder, 

Where earth's troubles all are o'er, 
"Where the sleep of death is broken, 

And the dreamer dreams no more: 
Where Love's bond is never severed, 

Partings, sighings, Bob and moan, 
Midnight wailing, twilight weeping, 

Tearful noontide, all are done: 



MEMORIAL SERVICES. 59 

Where the child has found its mother, 

Where the father finds his child, 
Where God's families are gathered 

That were scattered on the wild. 
There, Brother, I hope we'll meet and rest 
With the ransomed and the blest. 

Gone where a darkened world shall brighten 

Underneath a clearer sky, 
And a milder, gentler sunshine 

Sheds its golden splendors nigh ; 
Where the barren vales shall blossom, 

Putting on their robes of green, 
And a fairer, Heavenlier Eden, 

Be where only wastes have been ; 
Where our Christ in Kingly glory, 

Such as earth has never known. 
Shall resume his righteous scepter, 

Claim and wear his starry crown. 
There, Brother, I hope we'll meet and rest 
With the ransomed and the blest. 

— Joseph F. Brown. 
Indiana2)olis, May 18, 1890. 

Benediction by Elder Love H. Jameson. 

May the grace of God our Heavenly Father and of 
our Lord, the Savior, Jesus Christ, and the sweet con- 
solation of the Holy Spirit be with us and abide with us 
and with all the people of God everywhere, now and 
forever more. Amen. 



APPENDIX. 



Doctor Brown, for sixty years of his life, was an oc- 
casional contributor of poems to newspapers and maga- 
zines. Many of these poems were of a high order of 
merit. The last verses, written by him on January I, 
1890 (in the eighty-third year of his age), were for The 
Organizer, and are inserted here as a fair specimen of 
his compositions in this department of literature : 

NEW YEAR MUSINGS. 

BY EYLAND T. BEOIVX. 

Since last we hailed a happy " Xew Year's " day, 
How many dear lov'd ones have passed away — 
How many a crushed and bleeding heart 
Has felt keen disappointment's bitter smart — 
How many hopes, as gilded and as bright 
As Orient dreams, have sunk in starless night, 
And left the bosom, once they warmed and lit, 
A blighted thing — for desolation fit. 

But years will come, and coming years will go, 
In long procession drawn ; but who can know 
The message they will bring to future man — 
And who the burden of that message scan ? 
But are the coming years in darkness hid 
From mortal ken? Xay ! from this gloom amid, 
Beams out a ray, to light up what shall be, 
And give our souls a glimpse of destiny. 

This world is not a maze without a plan, 

Where cruel chance can sport with helpless man ; 

The Heavenly Father's wisdom guides the whole 

Advancing race, toward an unseen goal. 

What though the story of the coming years 

Shall be stained with blood and bathed in tears — 

Yet, only thus can wayward men attain 

The greater* good, and reach tin 1 higher plane. 



APPENDIX. 6 1 

And though with pain we tread this thorny path, 
Yet He who tames the winds, " shall make the wrath 
Of man to praise Him." Out of darkness light 
Shall spring ; and out of wrong shall come the right — 
And glory crown the rugged path we 've trod 
At last — for Truth is true and God is God. 
January 1, 1890. 

Less than a month before his death, Dr. Brown 
preached his fifty-eighth successive annual Easter-day 
sermon ; a record that it is doubtful whether any other 
Christian minister ever made. These sermons were 
not repetitions of the same matter from year to 
year. Each one of the series was carefully prepared, 
with reference to general conditions and surrounding 
circumstances, existing at the time of its delivery. 

The following is his last sermon : 

THE RESUERECTION LIFE. 

(Delivered at Greenfield, Ind., April 6, 1890.) 
This is the anniversary of the consummation of the great cen- 
tral event in the history of our fallen humanity. On the morning 
of the first day of the week following the Passover, the Divine 
One, who wore our human nature, came back from the death which 
He suffered for our sins, and brought to us life and immortality in 
His triumph over death. Yesterday was the Passover and to-day is 
the first day of the week after that event. This and Pentecost, 
which will occur seven weeks hence, are the only events in the 
New Testament history of which the date can be fixed with any 
reliable certainty. The resurrection of Jesus occupied a much 
more prominent place in the preaching of the Apostles than is 
assigned to it in our modern sermons. They did not hesitate to 
connect that event with our justification — our deliverance from 
sin — the Holy Spirit which is given unto us — the final adjudication 
of human affairs — and the hope of that eternal life that lies be- 
yond. Nay, more than all this, the Apostle Paul makes it the key- 
stone of the arch that supports Christianity, with all that it is 
and all that it promises. " If Christ be not risen, then is our 
preaching in vain, and your faith is also in vain. Yea, and we are 
false witnesses of God — for if Christ be not risen * * you 
are yet in your sins." Every sermon reported in the Acts of the 



62 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

Apostles closes with the resurrection of Christ. But to us, in our 
frail mortality, the chief significance of that event is the assur- 
ance it gives us of an eternal life, beyond these fleeting hours. 
There are but two questions of supreme importance to a rational 
human being. These are : 

1st. Does death end all? If not, 

2d. What relation does that future life bear to the present life? 

But custom has decreed that every sermon must have a text, 
and before proceeding further I will announce mine: II Timothy 
i : 10, "Our Savior Jesus Christ who hath abolished death and 
brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel," or to 
strip the idea of its Hebrew dress, we would read, who brought an 
immortal life to light through the Gospel, the consummation of 
which is His resurrection from the dead. AVe will assume a nega- 
tive answer to the first question and proceed to consider the future 
life and its relation to the present state of existence. 

The idea of a life beyond the present is so nearly universal 
among all peoples, and in every age of the world, as to admit of a 
solution only on one of two hypotheses : Either it is an instinct of 
our common humanity, or it is a primeval revelation which has 
come down to us through the ages, from the parent germ of the 
race, and has been diffused through every branch of the widely 
scattered family of man. From the untutored savage, who sees be- 
yond the strife and blood of the battle field the Happy Hunting 
Grounds, to the sublime speculations of Plato on the immortality 
of the soul, the idea of a life beyond this mortal state is the herit- 
age of the whole human race. But I notice this fact only to give 
emphasis to our subject, the future life. AA T hile there is a general 
concurrence in the proposition that conscious existence does not 
terminate at death, yet the nature of that future state is so im- 
perfectly defined among writers, both ancient and modern, that it 
is impossible to form a clear conception of the idea of either con- 
cerning the nature of that life. The great care which the Egyp- 
tians bestowed on their mummies implies that they expected those 
same bodies to be called back to life again. It is probable that the 
Hebrew idea of the resurrection life was borrowed from Egypt, 
when that people sojourned in the land of the Nile. From what- 
ever source derived we may infer from the question propounded 
to the Savior by the Sadducees, concerning the woman who had 
seven husbands, that the current idea among the Jews at that 
time was that the resurrection was merely a re-animation of this 
material body, 'retaining all its animal appetites, passions and 
propensities. Future life among the Greeks, in the age of the phi- 
losophers, was the immortality of the soul, and yet Socrates in his 



APPENDIX. 63 

last discourse describes Tartarus, the place to which wicked souls 
are consigned, as having all the characteristics of materiality ; but 
of the good he says : " They who have lived a pure life, being 
freed from these regions of the earth, as from a prison, arrive at 
the pure abode above and dwell in these upper parts, where they 
shall live without bodies throughout all future time." But the dying 
philosopher throws a doubt over the whole matter by immediately 
adding, " To affirm positively that these things are exactly as 
have described them does not become a man of sense." But this 
only verifies the truth implied in our text, the whole subject was 
in darkness till Christ brought the immortal life to light in the 
Gospel. 

The future life is not a question of philosophy, but a matter of 
faith ; not a question of reason, but a revelation. Though gleams 
of light occasionally flash out in the Psalms and in the Prophets, 
yet the clear averment of an Apostle assures us that the subject 
was seen only in a dim twilight till the Gospel of a risen Savior 
lifted the curtain and poured on it a flood of living light. We are 
therefore limited to the revelation of the Gospel for a clear appre- 
hension of this hour's investigation. In examining the New Tes- 
tament on this subject, we must bear in mind that in its delinea- 
tions of the future state, highly figurative language is used from 
necessity. Xo literal description of that state of existence can be 
made intelligible to us in the present state ; therefore, it is never 
attempted. But whether we interpret these figures correctly or 
not, there is enough in the literal declarations of this book to form 
a sure foundation for our faith in a future life, whether we compre- 
hend the nature of that life or not. When an Apostle declares that 
" there shall be a resurrection both of the just and of the unjust," 
he speaks without figure ; and when the Great Teacher says that 
" they who have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of 
life, and they who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemna- 
tion," He speaks plainly. Indeed, the doctrine of a future judg- 
ment rests on the resurrection of the dead, " For we shall all ap- 
pear before the judgment-seat of Christ that every one may re- 
ceive the things done in the body, whether they be good or bad." 
(II Cor. v : 10.) In this language we are not only assured of a future 
life, but we are also taught that we shall retain our personal iden- 
tity and be conscious of all deeds of the present life. But this 
raises the question : In what does personal identity consist? In 
the first place, it does not consist in the sameness of body or mat- 
ter. I need not remind you that the material body is continually 
changing, yet personal identity is not affected thereby. Nor does 
identity consist in the sameness of form. Seventy-live years ago 



64 DK RYLAND T. BROWN. 

an auburn-haired boy might have been seen conning his lesson in 
an old log school-house ; to-day a gray-haired man stands before 
you as your speaker. In matter, in form, in appearance, there is 
no similarity, much less identity ; and yet I am conscious of the 
personal identity of the two. Of this there can be no mistake. In 
what, then, does this personal identity consist? I have the same 
life now that animated the school-boy then, and that life has main- 
tained its integrity and performed its functions without intermis- 
sion for the intervening three-quarters of a century. Everything 
of me and everything around me has changed, but my life bridges 
over all the changes, and I am conscious that I am the same person. 
The common sense of mankind in regard to everything living, lo- 
cates its identity in its life. Even vegetable life identifies its sub- 
jects. You say of the twig you planted twenty years ago, I planted 
that tree. The life of that little twig now works the organized ma- 
chinery of the great tree. This is the point of identity, and the 
only one. 

With the definition, let us turn to the book. Plato talks of an 
immortal soul, and modern scientists discourse learnedly about in- 
destructible matter, but the Bible announces eternal life. Summing 
up the whole volume of human redemption, the Apostle John says : 
" This is the record — God hath given to us eternal life, and this life 
is in His Son." This is the rock on which rests the doctrine of the 
resurrection state. But some one may inquire, what is life? I 
answer frankly — I do not know. I know what it does, but I do 
not know what it is. In this respect it is associated with the great 
family of invisible forces that move and mold the material uni- 
verse. We are assured of the real existence of these, as undoubt- 
edly as if they were substances that we could see and handle. The 
gravity that holds a mountain in its place is as much a reality as 
the mountain itself — the life that moves my hand is as real as the 
hand that is moved. Just here I am confronted by a class of men 
who call themselves scientists, who assert that life is but a property 
of organized matter. Now, we all agree that all organization of 
matter is the result of life. Men who assume that an effect can 
be its own cause must be left to the absurdity of their own fal- 
lacious logic. But life is a family of forces. In the vegetable 
world we see it building up forms that have neither sensation nor 
voluntary motion. But we ascend to a place above this where we 
find, superadded to these vegetable functions, the powers of vol- 
untary motion, sertsation and perception. This is animal life. It 
evidently includes memory and the power to associate its ideas de- 
rived from sensation. But we find in man faculties that operate 
on a plane as much above this as this is above vegetable life. These 



APPENDIX. 65 

embrace the power of abstract thought and the creative faculty of 
imagination — the power of considering the abstract qualities of 
actions as right and wrong, and from this is evolved the moral sense 
or conscience. These are functions of spirit life ; and to this life 
Christianity addresses itself. Its mission is to subordinate all the 
animal powers, passions and propensities to the domination of 
this higher life. The blessed Christ sends His spirit to dwell in 
the redeemed, and if Christ be in us, the animal man, as a ruling 
power, is dead, because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of 
righteousness. The life of the spirit, triumphing through faith in 
Christ, and strengthened through the Holy Spirit given unto us as 
the children of God, overcomes the world. This is the life of which 
an Apostle says : " You are dead, and your life is hid with Christ 
in God. When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall you 
appear with him in glory." But life is a moving force — a fountain 
of activities, and can manifest itself only as it is embodied in a 
medium capable of being pervaded by its activies. I will not affirm 
that a spirit life, hid with Christ in God, may not be conscious of 
its existence, and even be happy in that consciousness, but all 
our conception of life demands that there shall be a medium 
through which it shall manifest itself. In conformity with this 
conception, the Scriptures represent the resurrection as a re-em- 
bodiment of this spirit life. This brings us to the Paulinean ques- 
tion : " With what body do they come? " 

Allow me, before we enter the discussion of this question, to re- 
mind you that all the light we have on this subject is contained 
in the brief revelation given us in the word of God, and the mo- 
ment we wander beyond this light we are in thick darkness. There 
is but little revealed — indeed, there is but little revealable to our 
comprehension, and for all beyond we must wait "the great 
teacher, death." Paul's beautiful analogy of the germinating 
grain (I Cor. xv:36), teaches its lesson with clearness and precis- 
ion. It was but a bare grain — a hard unsightly kernel — but " thou 
sowest not the body which shall be, but God giveth it a body as it 
hath pleased Him." The grain is decomposed — to all appearance 
it dies. Anon there springs up the delicate plumule of soft velvet 
green, and spreads out its young leaves to catch the early rays of 
the rising sun. Now, in what consists the identity of the grain 
sown and the body that has appeared? The book declares that the 
body we sow is not the body that shall be. Then it is not identity 
of body ; but the life that matured and ripened the grain, and had 
quietly slept in its graves, now actively works the vegetable ma- 
chinery of the new body. This life has survived a thousand resur- 
rections and has preserved its identity through the long line of its 

5 



66 DR- RYLAND T. BROWN. 

ancestry, down the dim vista of the past, from the first grain that 
God made. Having by this simple, yet sublime lesson, paved the 
way, the sacred writer proceeds to unfold the mystery of the two 
classes of bodies. The one is a natural, earthly, corruptible, dis- 
honored body ; the other is a spiritual, heavenly, glorious and in- 
corruptible body. If some one asks, What is a spiritual body? I 
am free to confess that I do not know. I know spirit by its facul- 
ties as I know matter by its properties, but I know neither of them 
in their entity. I can note the properties of a material body, its 
color, its form, its gravity, its density, its chemical affinity, etc., 
but what that thing is, in which these properties reside, I do not 
know. To conceal my ignorance I call it matter. So of the facul- 
ties of spirit. I follow them as they unravel the tangled mysteries 
of a problem in pure mathematics ; I follow Newton and Kepler 
and Laplace, as they walk among the stars, weigh the planets and 
lay the measuring line around the sun himself. Then I ask, what 
is that of which these wonderful faculties are the manifestation? 
I call it spirit just as I call the unknown quantity x in algebra. 

I know neither matter nor spirit in its essence, yet I am as fully 
convinced of the real existence of the one as the other. This is 
Paul's exhaustive classification of bodies with their properties and 
attributes, and he proceeds to say that " as we have borne the image 
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly ; " and 
as if to cut off all dispute about the nature of the resurrection body, 
he adds : " Flesh and blood can not inherit the Kingdom of God, 
neither does corruption inherit incorruption." All organized 
forms of matter are in themselves essentially mortal. They bear 
in themselves the conditions of their own death and dissolution. 
Even primitive man, in the garden of innocency, required a " tree 
of life," to combat the inevitable tendency of flesh and blood to 
death and corruption. " The things that are seen are temporal, 
but the things that are not seen are eternal." The Apostle Paul 
says, " We look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ from heaven, 
who will change our dishonored body that it may be fashioned like 
unto His glorious body." John says, " Now are we the Children of 
God, but it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know 
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him." This intro- 
duces the subject of the resurrection of Jesus, a subject especially 
in place on this day. The body in which Jesus appeared to his dis- 
ciples after his crucifixion and burial, was evidently the same ma- 
terial body that was crucified. It bore the marks of the nails and 
the ghastly wound of the spear. This was a necessity, otherwise 
His disciples would not have recognized Him, and His Apostles 
could not have been witnesses of His resurrection. Peter at the 



APPENDIX. 67 

house of Cornelius said, " We ate and drank with Him after He 
rose from the dead." 

But a few years later, when He appeared to Saul of Tarsus, He 
was not that scarred and dishonored body which challenged the 
doubting Thomas to examine, but a body of such transcendent and 
effulgent glory that the noon-day sun paled before its light, and 
the eyes of the persecuting Saul were blinded. When John in Pat- 
mos had a vision of " Him who was dead and is alive forevermore," 
such was the glory of His presence that the Apostle fell at his feet 
as one dead. This was certainly not that body which familiarly 
ate with the disciples the broiled fish and the honeycomb. But the 
Apostle solves this problem when he says : " Behold I show you a 
mystery ; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a 
moment — in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump ; for the 
trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and 
we shall be changed." 

Jesus, having demonstrated his power to call back his life to re- 
animate a mangled body in the cold embrace of death, was a sig- 
nal triumph over the King of Terrors ; but now to transfer that 
life to a glorious spiritual body, whicb, from its very nature, is in- 
corruptible, is to consummate the victory over death. This, then, is 
the hope of the Christian, that, whether sleeping or waking, when 
He appears, we shall also appear with Him in glory, " for we shall 
behold Him as He is, and shall be like Him." " They that sleep in 
Jesus will God bring, with Him." But of them who sleep, but not 
in Jesus, the record is exceedingly brief — " They shall come forth 
to the resurrection of condemnation." "And these shall go away 
into everlasting punishment." This comprises all we know on this 
gloomy subject. God forbid that any of us should ever know more 
of it. The theme is too terrible to contemplate. And yet, how 
many thousands in this land of Bibles spend the returnless years 
of this life in " sowing to the flesh," who " must of the flesh reap 
corruption." 

Many object to the Bible revelation of the future life on account of 
its meager details of the modes and circumstances of that life. Let 
me remind you tbat the revelation of a future life is designed only 
to furnish a basis for our faith and hope, and not for the gratifica- 
tion of an idle curiosity. Revelation is always related to duty and 
never to mere abstract knowledge ; therefore, no more is revealed 
on this subject than is necessary to convince us of the fact, and to 
kindle an ardent desire for its enjoyment, or plant an inexpressible 
horror for its torment. This much is clearly revealed : The chil- 
dren of the resurrection, being the children of God, are immortal, 
and, having spiritual bodies, are free from the infirmities of the 



68 DR. RYLAND T. BROWN. 

flesh, for in the present state of our humanity, "the flesh lusteth 
against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are 
contrary the one to the other." This conflict demands a constant 
watchfulness through all this mortal pilgrimage. God created this 
animal body to serve, and not to rule, but in our departure from 
God the carnal mind rebelled against the divine arrangement, and 
"is not willingly subject to the law of God;" hence the life-long 
conflict for the mastery. Though we cling to this mortal body with 
its wayward passions and rebellious propensities with an affection 
of which it is wholly unworthy, yet " we who are in this taberna- 
cle do groan, being burdened ; not that we would be unclothed but 
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." This 
deliverance from the incompatibility of flesh and spirit into a 
state of complete unison between a spirit life and a spiritual body, 
is the climax of the Christian's hope. 

" When this flesh and sense shall fail, 
And mortal life shall cease, 
We shall possess within the vail 
A life of joy and peace." 

Long years of sowing to the spirit, though in conflicts and in 
struggles — in tears and in anguish, in pain and in affliction, " shall 
work for us a far more exceeding and external weight of glory." 
But when shall this grand consummation be reached? In almost 
every allusion to this subject in the New Testament, the resurrec- 
tion is associated with the coming of the Lord, and this, too, in 
language that can hardly be construed as figurative. For example : 
" If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also who 
sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him ; for the Lord himself shall 
descend from heaven with a shout — with the voice of the Arch- 
angel and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise 
first." The Scriptures link together three consecutive events, to 
wit : The coming of the Lord, the resurrection of the dead and the 
grand assize, when He will judge the world in righteousness. But 
of the times and the seasons when this sublime train of events 
will transpire, it is not given to man on earth, nor to angels in 
heaven, to know. 

But some one may ask, What is the relation of the body we con- 
sign to the earth, to pass through corruption to its elemental state, 
to that glorious body in which shall dwell eternal life ? Beyond 
the fact that the resurrection body will bear to the judgment seat 
of Christ, a life vividly conscious of the deeds done in this present 
body, the Scriptures are silent and it behooves us to be silent also. 
But notwithstanding the contrast so sharply defined by the pen of 
inspiration, there is a tendency, even with those who believe and 



APPENDIX. 69 

reverence the word of God, to invest the future life with the prop- 
erties and attributes of materiality. The anxiety of many about 
where and how they shall be buried, and the almost idolatrous de- 
votion which is often paid to the insensate dust of the dead, are 
outcroppings of this tendency. 

The eternal life of the Bible is not the immortality of the soul 
taught by the great philosophers. That may be true or false with- 
out the least affecting this. The Christian idea of a future life is 
a spiritual body, pervaded and vitalized by the same soul life 
which manifests itself in the higher functions of our present exist- 
ence. This eternal life is not an inherent property of our human- 
ity, but it is a gracious gift of God's love — " The wages of sin is 
death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." The Bible knows no eternal life but in the Son of God. 
" He that hath the Son, hath life, and he that hath not the Son of 
God, hath not life," is the plain language of inspiration. God gives 
this present life to all, and with it He giveth the testimony and 
faculty necessary to faith, and the capacity to obey that faith ; 
and the blessed Christ, " being made perfect through suffering be- 
came the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him." 
God gives to all this brief span of mortal life to test our capacity 
to use life. If we spend this life in the service of sin, would it be 
wise — would it be benevolent in God to give us eternal life to squan- 
der in a like manner? " But to them who by a patient continuance 
in well doing seek for glory, honor and immortality," God will 
award eternal life. He sets before us life and death, and has sent 
out the Gospel of His Son as preached by the Holy Spirit sent 
down from Heaven, proclaiming to the ends Of the earth, " Who- 
soever will, let him come and take the water of life freely." If 
the enjoyment of eternal life, with those who hear the Gospel, shall 
not be universal, the responsibility of the failure will rest on those 
who reject the gracious offer. Jesus Christ has " brought life and 
immortality to light through the Gospel," and if men choose dark- 
ness rather than light, they must take the consequences. 

" Charge not, with light sufficient and left free, 
Your willful suicide on God's decree." 

In this, God has paid the highest possible compliment to the 
freedom of the human will.* In the plentitude of His love He even 
gave His own Son to redeem us from death ; yet He refrains from 
the violation of our free will. He will give no man eternal life in 
that day who is unwilling to accept its conditions in this day. In 
all this there is no partiality — no respect of persons with God. The 
offer of eternal life is universal, and the sad failure to secure it 



;o DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

rests just where the Messed Savior put it: "'You will not come 
unto Me that you might have life." 

But the glories of that life transcend the loftiest concept 
the imagination in this mortal state. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the 
things that God hath prepared for them that love Him." How 
dark would this world be without the light of life that beams from 
the glorified Son of man ; but in that lisht we walk securely 
we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle wer 
solved, we have a house — a building of God, * * * eternal in 
the heavens." This hope, as an anchor to the soul, lays firm hold 
on that within the vail. The storms may come, and life's tempests 
howl their fiercest blasts, yet those anchored on this hope will se- 
curely outride the gale. The tears that now bedim our vision shall 
be unknown in that blessed home, and the clouds of sorrow that 
now darken our skv shall vanish in the liirht of an eternal dav. 



The Indiana Fanner of May 10. 1S90. James G. 
Kingsbury editor, contained an editorial on the death 
of Dr. Brown, and also a tribute from T. A. Goodwin, 
both of which here follow : 

DEATH OF DR. R. T. BKOWN. 

. \ Dr. Ryland T. B 

the Sod year of hit 

It is sad for us to pen these words and to think that never again 
shall we welcome to our orfice the genial old gentleman who for ten 
years has been our associate, and for almost as many years previ- 
ous a frequent contributor to the columns of the F . Almost 
daily for these many years have we enjoyed the privilege of grasp- 
ing his hand and hearing his pleasant greeting. During all this 
time he has been our counselor and adviser when counsel and ad- 
vice were necessary. His extensive reading and experience in ag- 
ricultural subjects, and one of the most remarkable memories we 
ever knew, made him invaluable as an adviser on the topics that 
are constantly coming up to perplex an agricultural editor. He 
seldom failed in making prompt reply bo all our .jue^tions. and was 
almost uniformly exact in all details. "We shall miss him and de- 
plure our irreparable 1< >ss for years to come. 

His death was caused by a second attack of la grippe, the cause 
of so many deaths recently, especially among aged people. He re- 
mained conscious to the last moment, taking an interest in all 



APPENDIX. 71 

that transpired about him, and giving directions about his funeral, 
which he insisted should be a plain one, in keeping with his tastes 
and manner of life. His medical skill enabled him to perceive that 
the medicines prescribed for him were not having the desired 
effect, and that his end was near : but he felt no alarm, and had 
no regret at the near approach of death. He died at peace 
with God and man. His long life had bee"n devoted to serv- 
ing his fellow-men with all the rare ability with which he was 
endowed. It was pure, unselfish, consistent and above reproach. 
Though quiet and unostentatious, it was a remarkable life. Few 
are more so in their lofty purpose, high ideal, and the steady, un- 
remitting aim to reach a position where God could approve and 
men be unable to blame. Our intercourse with him for these many 
years has been a constant inspiration and blessing to us, and never 
for a moment has it been marred even by a misunderstanding. AVe 
mourn him as a father and elder brother in one, and do not hope 
to see his like again. 

At an early age he became a Christian and united with the 
Church of the Disciples, and became one of the pioneer preachers 
of that faith, conducting services frequently wherever he happened 
to reside, though not at any time acting as a settled pastor. We 
alluded a few weeks since to the fact that he had preached his 
fifty-eighth consecutive Easter sermon, at Greenfield. This last 
Easter sermon he told us contained thoughts he had never 
preached in any preceding sermon. It was written entirely for the 
occasion. This is in accordance with the Doctor's habit of mind. 
Thinking was habitual with him. While walking from his resi- 
dence to the business part of the city, a mile or more — for he sel- 
dom patronized the street cars, preferring the exercise to the ride 
— he was usually so absorbed in thought as not to notice friends he 
met unless spoken to by them. His'editorials were composed quite 
ot'ten during these walks. 

He was interested in all that affects the welfare of humanity, 
and his greatest desire was to live to see the downfall of the traffic 
in intoxicating liquors, which he regarded as the source of the 
larger part of the crime, want and suffering that afflicts the world. 
He often attributed his own singular exemption from disease, and 
vigorous old age, to the fact that he had never weakened his sys- 
tem by the use of alcoholic or narcotic poisons. 

Another and an older friend gives below a sketch of Dr. Brown's 
life and traits of character. It only remains to present here a 
brief statement of dates and events in his history. 



72 DR. BYLAN1 T. BEOWN. 

DATES AND EVENTS. 

He was born October 5, 1807, in Mason county, Kentucky, and 
was brought to Rush county, this state, when thirteen years old. 
At twenty years he began the study of medicine, attending lectures 
at the Ohio Medical College, Cincinnati. Graduating in 1832 
he began practicing his profession at Connersville. He studied 
natural sciences while engaged in his other duties, and soon be- 
came an authority on geological and chemical subjects. 

In 1843 he removed to Crawfordsville, where he resided until 
1S5S, when he came to this city to occupy the chair of natural sci- 
ences in the Northwestern Christian University, of which institu- 
tion he was a member of the first board of trustees. In 1870-71 he 
taught chemistry in the Medical College of Indiana. In 1854 he 
was appointed by Governor Wright to fill the newly-constituted 
office of State Geologist, and in 1872 was made Chief Chemist of 
the United States Agricultural Department at Washington. In 
1856 he took an active part in organizing the Republican party in 
this state in the interest of the suppression of slavery, having for 
many years been an Abolitionist. He was always foremost in the 
work of temperance reform, and in 1854, as chief officer of the Sons 
of Temperance, he was the most efficient agent in bringing about 
the passage of a law prohibiting the sale of intoxicants, a subject 
that has been most dear to his heart ever since, and caused him to 
give his earnest adhesion to the Prohibition party when first or- 
ganized. 

His FUNERAL. 

The funeral, which took place from the Doctor's late residence on 
last Monday, was attended by a large number of his relatives and 
friends. Many found it impossible to gain entrance to the house. 
The services were conducted by Elders D. R. VanBuskirk, D. R. 
Lucas and L. H. Jameson, of the Church of the Disciples, and 
were exceedingly interesting. Mr. Van Buskirk had known the 
Doctor for more than fifty years, and Mr. Jameson for sixty years. 
Each gave numerous reminiscences of his eventful life. 



TRIBUTE FROM REV. T. A. GOODWIN. 

Measured by any proper standard, Dr. Ryland T. Brown was one 
of earth's greatest heroes. His intellectual endowments were 
much above the average, but it was not in that that he excelled ; 
it was in the faithful improvement of the gifts which God had be- 
stowed, and the opportunities which his surroundings gave him. 
In youth and early manhood he was marked among his associates 
for his application to books and the profit he derived from them, 



APPENDIX. 



73 



so that it was no surprise to those who knew him, that he entered 
upon the practice of medicine with promise of distinction in his 
profession. Had his active mind and high life-purpose permitted 
him to concentrate his energies upon that one pursuit he would 
have attained eminence as a physician, but he saw too many open 
doors for immediate usefulness to permit him to waste a life on 
personal aspirations in any one field, hence, he early began to dis- 
play an aptitude for general usefulness, not often shown in the life 
of any one man. 

Underlying the whole of his life work was a consecration to the 
purpose to be good and do good, to be right and do right, and this 
was seen in everything he undertook in his long and varied life. It 
was developed earliest, and we may say most conspicuously, in his 
religious life, for Dr. Brown was a religious man in the most proper 
sense of that term. By the environments of his early life, and 
through the influence of a talented and religious mother, he was 
early led into the Baptist church. But the Baptists of that period 
in the rural districts of the TTest were so unlike the cultured and 
evangelical Baptists of to-day that it is almost impossible to 
trace kinship, and the young Brown chafed under the yoke which 
was put upon him in his fellowship with them. About that time 
Alexander Campbell had begun his life work of recasting the 
thought of the churches of that period and especially of the Bap- 
tist church. His views and methods found a hearty sympathizer 
in young Brown and he soon identified himself with the fortunes 
of the people who chose to be called Disciples or Christians, and 
he became one of their most influential preachers, though never a 
pastor in the common acceptation of that word, for all the while, 
first at Connersville and later at Crawfordsville, he gave his atten- 
tion to a large and lucrative practice as a physician. 

Supplying adjacent destitute churches with regular preaching, 
ordinarily with little or no pecuniary recompense above his actual 
traveling expenses, and often not even that. The heroism of such 
service can not be over-estimated, but it was in the line of his life- 
purpose to be good and do good. As an index to his faithfulness it 
may be noted that for fifty-eight consecutive Easters he delivered 
a sermon on the resurrection, the last one being only four weeks 
before his death. As a preacher, he ranked high among his breth- 
ren, even to the last, and long after passing the period of life at which 
it is generally supposed the mental and physical forces of nature 
have so abated as to disqualify a man for effective pulpit work. His 
sermons were always instructive and helpful. As an illustration 
of their practical character, a somewhat amusing incident may be 
mentioned. In 1841 and 1842, that theological craze known as 



74 DR. RYLAND T. BROWX. 

Millerism had become very rampant in the White Water country. 
Among its most zealous advocates was a young preacher of his de- 
nomination, of considerable pulpit celebrity, and as he went from 
church to church proving conclusively to his own mind that the 
world would certainly come to an end on or about midnight, Feb- 
ruary 13th, 1843, he created no little commotion among the breth- 
ren, many of whom fell in with the notion that earth's history was 
about complete. 

Dr. Brown was skeptical, and to capture him was to carry with 
him into the new faith the Christian Church of the White Water 
country almost in a body, as the Millerites supposed, hence ir was 
arranged to have him present at one of the meetings of the evan- 
gelist to hear for himself. He listened attentively, and when the 
young man closed, supposing that he had so thoroughly convinced 
his intended victim that there was nothing to do but to accept an 
open confession and a hearty indorsement, he said, looking toward 
Dr. Brown : " Perhaps Brother Brown would like to add a word." 
Thus called upon, the Doctor could not well refuse "to add a word." 
It was but a word, and ran as follows : "I have listened attentively 
to the sermon. It suggests to me these questions : If what he says is 
true, is there anything for me to do or to leave undone that I ought 
not to do, or to leave undone, if it were not true? But if not true, 
if the world does not come to an end in the time and manner he 
has so positively declared, what must be the inevitable effect upon 
those who are inclined to be skeptical? It is impossible to present 
any of the central and generally received truths of the Bible with 
more assurance and positiveness than he has to-day preached this 
new and doubtful doctrine. For my part I propose to continue do- 
ing the things required of me, as I understand them, just as though 
the world is to continue a thousand years, and to preach the Gos- 
pel as I understand it, as though to me and my hearers every day 
was the last. I am sure, if properly preached, it will prove the 
power of God to salvation to all who believe and obey. That is my 
personal view of my personal duty." And that was all he said. 
The effect was instantaneous and conclusive. From that day the 
evangelist's occupation was gone, and he soon disappeared as a 
preacher of Millerism. 

The ruling passion of his life to be good and do good soon ar- 
rayed him in open hostility to slavery. It was, at that period, 
almost unsafe to assail slavery even in Indiana, and yet he dis- 
cussed it freely and as early as 1 8-4-4. He withdrew from all affilia- 
tion with other political parties, and identified himself with the 
anti-slavery party, and voted its ticket in 1S44. 1S4S and 1852, being 
himself at one time a candidate for the legislature from Montgomery 



APPENDIX. 75 

county that he might have a better opportunity to discuss the po- 
litical phase of the question before the people. Later, in 1854, 
when the border ruffianism in Kansas amazed the nation, he, with 
nearly all who had been for twelve years in the Abolition party, 
held his extreme views in abeyance while they gave attention 
to the immediate necessity of excluding slavery from free terri- 
tory, and he canvassed Indiana in behalf of the People's party 
that year. 

Young Dr. Brown was among the very earliest advocates of tem- 
perance in Indiana. When its pledge excluded only ardent spirits, 
he espoused the cause and kept in the fore front of the move- 
ment to the day of his death. His most conspicuous service in this 
line was through the order of the Sons of Temperance, of which he 
became a member at the first opportunity, in the year 1846. He 
displayed such zeal and ability in the work of the order that in 
1853 he was elected Grand Worthy Patriarch, at which time there 
were near 500 working divisions in the state. It was a most op- 
portune election. No other man in the state could have filled the 
place as well. The canvass of 1854 for prohibition was approach- 
ing. The leading men of the state were in the order and they 
needed an intrepid and able leader. That man was Dr. Brown. He 
could not better afford to neglect his private business than a 
thousand other men, but impelled by his life purpose to be good 
and do good, he practically abandoned everything that he might 
visit the divisions and inspire them with his zeal and lead them on 
to victory. His ability as a speaker and the purity of his personal 
character aided greatly in his labor of love, while his record as an 
anti-slavery man led the thousands who had been with him in the 
party organization to join in the work of the hour, to restrict 
slavery and trust to future developments for its extirpation. 

Those who have known him as a temperance speaker only within 
the last fifteen or twenty years can form a very inadequate idea of 
his power on the platform thirty-six years ago, when in the prime 
of a vigorous manhood and inspired by a theme not then thread- 
bare, but new to most of the large crowds that flocked to hear him. 
He was earnest, argumentative and eloquent, as that motive to be 
good and do good inspired him. 

But Doctor Brown never was called to a more heroic act than 
when his brethren appealed to him to forsake his lucrative prac- 
tice to take the Chair of Natural Science in the embryo North- 
western Christian University (now Butler), which he had been 
largely instrumental in planting for others to nurse and care for. 
But his life-purpose to be good and do good was sufficient for the 
occasion, and he accepted the chair at a merely nominal salary and 



76 DR. RYLAND T. BROWX. 

gave up his profession forever, for what little he did in the prac- 
tice of medicine afterwards was merely incidental. Even when, 
later, he was a professor in the medical college it was in the ca- 
pacity of a teacher of a science for which his chair in the university 
had qualified him more than his experience and practice as a phy- 
sician. 

In all the years of his active life he was broad in the scope of his- 
attainments. He studied the structure of the earth so thoroughly 
that he became one of the best geologists in the state, meriting 
and receiving the office of State Geologist. He became so versed 
in chemistry as to merit and receive the office of Chief Chemist to 
the Department of Agriculture at Washington, while he made 
himself so familiar with agriculture as to become one of the most 
prolific agricultural writers of his period, being for twenty years a 
contributor to the columns of the Indiana Farmer, either as asso- 
ciate editor or special contributor. Many of his agricultural pa- 
pers received a national reputation. One of them became national 
under peculiar and embarrassing circumstances. In 1853 he read 
a paper before the Indiana State Board of Agriculture on grasses, 
and it was filed with the papers of the Board to be published in 
their annual report. Soon afterwards Gov. Wright was invited to 
deliver an address upon some agricultural topic in New York. He 
soon began to look around for a topic. He had been struck with 
the freshness and originality of Dr. Brown's paper on grasses, then 
on file in the agricultural department of the State, and he thought 
it too good to be buried in the archives of the society, whereupon 
he drew upon it for suggestions for his forthcoming speech, which 
he had decided was to be upon grasses. It was delivered in due 
time, and elicited great encomiums, but the ubiquitous reporter was 
there, and the next morning Dr. Brown's paper on grasses ap- 
peared in the leading papers of the city, credited to the eloquent 
and versatile Gov. Wright, of Indiana. 

A life of singular beauty and usefulness is ended. It was a life 
of heroic achievements and of great personal purity. Dr. Brown 
was one man who lived not for himself, and the ending was worthy 
of such a life. He approached the close, not with the heroism of a 
stoic, but with the serenity of a Christian warrior, laying off his 
armor. He talked of death as he approached it as he would have 
talked of going to sleep or going on a journey. 



APPENDIX. 



77 



From the numerous letters of sympathy, and testi- 
monials of respect, the following selections and extracts 
have been made : 

[Central Prohibition Club.] 

The Central Prohibition Club, of the city of Indianapolis, was 
organized in the midst of the campaign of 1884, with Dr. Eyland 
T. Brown as a charter member. He continued to be an active 
member of the club until prostrated by his last sickness. A reg- 
ular weekly meeting of the club was held on the evening of his 
demise, at which it was 

Resolved, 1st, That this club attend the funeral of our lamented 
and most highly esteemed Brother Dr. Rylancl T. Brown. 

2d, That the next meeting of this club be a memorial occasion 
in honor of Dr. Brown. 

3d, That the Executive Committee prepare a special programme 
for that occasion. 

At the next meeting of the club, May 9, 1890, the Excutive Com- 
mittee presented a Memorial paper, appropriately rehearsing the 
fact of Dr. Brown's death from la grippe, with complications of heart 
trouble and nervous prostration ; and referring to his life-work as 
a preacher of the Gospel, physician and surgeon, scientist, teacher, 
patriot, reformer, orator and author. It was mentioned that 
Wabash College gave to Dr. Brown the Degree of Master of Arts ; 
that he was appointed by Joseph A. Wright, Governor of Indiana, 
State Geologist ; that he had filled the Chair of Natural Sciences 
in the Northwestern Christian University ; that he was one of the 
original faculty of the Indiana Medical College ; that he was ap- 
pointed by President Grant, Chief Chemist of the Agricultural 
Department at Washington City ; that he presented to the Free- 
soil Convention of 1852 the name of Hon. George W. Julian, who was 
thereupon nominated as the candidate of that party for the office 
of Vice-president of the United States, etc. The club also ap- 
pointed a special committee to prepare a suitable testimonial of in- 
spect to the memory of Dr. Brown, to be published with the report 
of the proceedings of a public memorial service, which the club 
then decided to hold at the Third Christian Church, in Indianap- 
olis, Lord's Day, May 18, 1890, at 3 p. m. The report of that com- 
mittee is as follows : 

IN MEMORIAM. 

The members of the Central Prohibition Club, of the city of In- 
dianapolis, are filled with unspeakable sorrow on account of the 
death of the venerable and dearly beloved Dr. Rylaiid T. Brown, a 



78 DR- RYLAND T. BROWX. 

charter member of the club. During the six years of its existence 
he was faithful in his attendance upon the meetings of the club ; 
always wise in his counsels, and untiring in his labors for the pro- 
motion and success of the object for which the club was organized, 
namely, the prohibition of the liquor curse. 

While thus sorrowing, and while earnestly sympathizing with 
his bereaved family, especially his beloved widow, Nancy T. Brown, 
who has also been a member of the club from the beginning, and 
who has always been " an help meet for him " in every good word 
and work, there is comfort in the assurance that our brother has 
gone from his vast labors to a rich reward, the " eternal weight of 
glory," and in the blessed fact that "his works do follow him," and 
the good he has done will live while time shall last and eternity 
endure. 

In the death of Dr. Brown the club suffers an irreparable loss ; 
not alone as a counselor, instructor and co-worker, but in the beau- 
tiful example of his practical, untiring and unselfish philanthropy, 
and in his unimpeachable integrity and Christian character. 

Until prostrated by his last sickness, it may be said of Dr. Brown, 
as w T as said of Moses, " his eye w T as not dim, nor his natural force 
abated." And, as " the children of Israel wept for Moses," so the 
people now mourn for Dr. Brown ; for, in his efforts to free this 
country from the curse of chattel slavery, and from the greater 
curse of drunkenness, he has been a Moses to the people of this na- 
tion. And it may be said of him, as of Job, when the ear heard 
Dr. Brown, then it blessed him ; and when the eye saw him it gave 
witness to him. 

AVhile it is true that Dr. Brown was liberally endowed by the 
Creator with gifts and talents, it is equally true that the extraor- 
dinary breadth and store of his learning and knowledge were due 
to his ceaseless efforts, during his long life, to thoroughly inform 
himself on all subjects within his reach, calculated to make man- 
kind wiser, better and happier. He never sought resting places, 
but labored on, and patiently waited for the rest that remaineth 
" to the people of God." He was ever on the alert to take advan- 
tage of any and all opportunities to either acquire for himself, or 
impart to others, all the information and knowledge it was in his 
power to acquire and impart. He ever strove to double the talents 
his Lord entrusted to his stewardship. Few men, if any, living or 
dead, possess, or have possessed, so large and varied a fund of cor- 
rect information and knowledge pertaining to the problems of re- 
ligion, morals, natural and physical sciences, and political econ- 
omy, as Dr. Brown. With him, old age was not a decline, not a 
down-hill journey. To the end of his useful life he not only 



APPENDIX. 



79 



searched deeper and deeper for undiscovered truths and treasures 
to enrich mankind, but he constantly ascended higher and higher 
in the King's Highway of Holiness, until his earthly pilgrimage 
ended at the open and welcoming door of the Father's House of 
many Mansions, to which the Savior in whom he trusted had gone 
to prepare a place for him. 

It may be that there is no Elisha who received a double portion 
of Dr. Brown's spirit when he exchanged the mortal for the im 
mortal state, or who took up his mantle when it fell from him ; yet 
we rejoice to know that multitudes of men and women are inspired 
with higher and holier purposes and ambitions because of Dr. 
Brown's teachings and example. 

God created man in His image, after His likeness ; but man fell 
from his God-like estate. Dr. Brown's life was an earnest effort to 
present to the world a reproduction of that image and likeness, 
and at last to present it, untarnished, to the Great Original. 

The good man rests in peace. May God help us all to imitate 
his example. 



[Capital City Prohibition Club.] 

Capital City Prohibition Club, at its meeting Monday evening, 
May 5, 1890, passed the following regarding the death of Dr. Ry- 
land T. Brown : 

" We can not allow the event of Dr. Ryland T. Brown's death to 
pass without some expression from this organization. While other 
organizations and many persons have and will hereafter give ex- 
pression upon this subject, it is especially appropriate that this 
organization shall do so. A long life has been given from early 
childhood to the active, intelligent and effective promotion of every 
good cause that came within his range. At the close of his career 
his friends are not called upon to apologize for any inactivity, un- 
certainty of views, hesitation or failure to render whatever assist- 
ance and support was within his power for the good of his race. 
With remarkable mental and moral culture, and remarkable op- 
portunities, he has rendered his name and character more remark- 
able than most of his fellows for good deeds. 

" In his death our cause has suffered a great loss, but we are con- 
soled with the reflection that in his life it was wonderfully the 
gainer. 

" A man of pure thoughts and pure life is deserving of great 
honor. These he possessed, as his fellows can testify, and the hon- 
ors were his to a remarkable degree. A more symmetrical, and 



8o DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

taking all in all a more useful life can scarcely be found, if at all, 
of the men who have lived and died in Indiana. 

" In the promotion of education, Christianity, good morals and 
political reforms he has borne a wonderful part. In developing 
and advertising the resources of Indiana, he has been most con- 
spicuous. Any cause that can command the full sympathy and 
activity of such a man will not perish through opposition of a 
Godless foe. 

" A useful life in the midst of innumerable friends, surrounded 
by his family in his own home, with full consciousness of the event 
that was occurring, with that peace that passeth all understand- 
ing in his heart, is the fitting termination of a faithful servant of 
the Great Master. His works shall follow him; his example will 
leave its impression, and we shall know more of the harvest from 
the seeds he has sown. 

" ' Good gray head whom all men knew, 
That stood four square to all the winds that blew.' 

"E. C. Siler, Sec'y. Pleasant Bond, Pretft." 



[Memorial Tribute of the Christian Woman's Board of Missions, of 
the Christian Church. This Board ivas organized in 1874, and is a 
National Society, with hundreds of Auxiliary Boards, scattered over 
thirty States. Its headquarters and office have remained from the 
first at Indianapolis.} 

Indianapolis, Ind., May 7, 1890. 
My Dear Mrs. Brown — The Executive Committee of the Chris- 
tian Woman's Board of Missions, of which you are an honored 
member, desires to join in the universal expressions of respect for 
your lamented husband, and of sympathy with you in his loss, 
which are coming to you. Indeed, it seems that we owe to his 
memory, even more than others, a debt of grateful remembrance. 
You, his wife, being a charter member of this Board, he showed 
from the day of its birth the liveliest interest in its welfare and in 
all its undertakings, and until his death, a period of nearly sixteen 
years, he continued its stanch and steadfast friend, urging its 
claims, distributing its literature and encouraging the formation of 
its auxiliaries, wherever he went. Dr. Brown was a missionary 
man in the broadest, most consistent sense. He longed and workod 
for the spread of the Gospel and the betterment of mankind, and 
Avelcomed every offered instrumentality for these ends. A man of 
advanced and progressive thought, a half century ago he lie Id 
many ideas that are generally accredited to the present, or, at 
farthest, to the last decade. In 1841 he was chairman of a state 
meeting (the first one ever called by our people in Indiana), to con- 



APPENDIX. 8 1 

■sider the subject of the evangelization of the state, and he there 
presented a report, urging the importance of the work, which was 
afterward published as a tract and distributed among the churches. 
In 1841 the state meeting convened at Connersville, to form a gen- 
eral co-operation of the churches, for the purpose of " supplying 
destitute places with the ministry of the Word." Dr. Brown was 
one of the four evangelists among whom this work was, geographic- 
ally, equally divided. He carried out his mission diligently, and 
made a full report to the general meeting in 1843. It is noted upon 
the record that for this year's work he received from the co-opera- 
tion and the field together, the sum of $160. 

During these early struggles, the idea of individual co-operation 
for missionary work, in preference to that of congregations, as 
such, seems to have become fixed in his mind. Relating his ex- 
periences, he says : " I conclude that our missionary work must 
look to individual liberality, rather than to church (congregational) 
contributions." And further on, in the same connection, he ex- 
presses in exact words the idea which was destined, thirty-two 
years after, to furnish in large part the cause for the organization 
of The Christian Woman's Board of Missions, and a main object 
for its work. His words were : " What ive need most, is to cultivate 
a habit of systematic giving at regular periods," and then he goes 
on foreshadowing the methods that we have since materialized. 
Another element combined with missionary zeal to fit him to hail 
enthusiastically, as he did, the advent of the woman's co-operative, 
independent work. Very strongly fixed in his mind, very dear to 
his heart, had long been the idea of equal opportunity for women, 
equal education, equal liberty in choice of pursuit, equal exercise of 
tastes and talents ; and therefore he rejoiced to see those of his own 
household of faith assume care and responsibility, and the dignity 
of a work of their own that would tend to develop mental powers 
that had long lain dormant. 

Standing thus near to us through all these years, he has been 
called upon from time to time for needed service. He was one of 
our Board of Trustees for the holding of property in foreign lands. 
We do not forget that when you, his wife, was elected our General 
Treasurer, and the work was new to all of us, he gave much assist- 
ance in the learning and performance of official duties. When we 
needed statistics, we looked to him for them. Year after year, 
when we met to bid farewell to departing missionaries, he was 
with us to give them parting words of encouragement and God- 
speed. He prayed continually to God for the advancement of the 
Kingdom, and rejoiced with us in every victory. 

His faith in God, — his ardent love for God's work in nature,— his 
6 



82 DR. RYLAXD T. BEOWN. 

warm sympathy with humanity, made him a man whose influence 
was felt in many fields. What the loss of his companionship is to 
you, who have so long lived under the constant inspiration of his 
active mind and noble aspirations, who have so long lived and 
loved and labored with him, we can but feebly imagine. 

He is taken away, but you have comfort in the assurance that 
he labored not in vain. The day will come when that wherein we 
are co-laborers with God will be accomplished. We live our little 
season upon the earth ; play our appointed parts and pass away ; 
but over all God reigns eternally, and at last ''every knee shall 
bow," and every tongue " confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." And 
in that glorious day when the long parted are reunited, and the 
tears are wiped away from our dimmed eyes, and our longing 
hearts are "satisfied," we shall note ever among that happy 
throng those who wear " the starry crowns " as more blessed than 
the rest. 

May the "Peace that passeth understanding " abide with you, 
and His grace be sufficient for you until the end,-is the prayer of 
your sisters of The Woman's Board of Missions. 

Maria Jameson, President. 



[Woman's Christian Temperance Union.] 

Dr. Brown did more, probably, than any other man in Indiana to 
make the Woman's Christian Temperance Union a permanent 
and powerful organization. That his labors and influence in that 
respect were and are appreciated is evidenced by the action of the 
Indiana W. C. T. U., at its Seventeenth Annual Meeting, held at 
Terre Haute, October 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14, 1890. In the published 
report of the proceedings of that meeting, under the title of " Our 
Illustrious Dead," three persons are named, to wit: Lucy Webb 
Hayes (wife of ex-President Hayes), General Clinton B. Fisk. and 
Dr. Ryland T. Brown. 

Of the latter, after appropriate reference to Mrs. Hayes and 
General Fiske, the report says : 

"Another, worthy to be enrolled among these, was Dr. Ryland T« 
Brown, a son of Indiana, whose life of more than eighty years was 
crowded, as few lives are, with good works. For more than fifty 
years he had been an advocate of woman's equality in all things 
with man, and, longer than that, a leader in the temperance work 
of the state. 

" Before the organization of our scientific temperance work, sci- 
entific temperance was being taught, through Dr. Brown's Physi- 
ol., gy, in half the schools of our state. 



APPENDIX. 83 

"A man of wonderful research, of marvelous memory, of experi- 
ence and judgment, he was, to the day of his translation, a wise 
counselor in all work of reform, and a steadfast friend of the W. 0. 
T. U. in all its work." 

On the last day of the meeting, the following telegram was sent 
to the widow : • 

" Terre Haute, Ind., Oct. 14, 1890. 

11 Mrs. Dr. R. T.Brown: Convention assembled, sends greeting 
and sympathy. Read Psalm 46. 

" Indiana W. C. T. U." 



[ One who was very near to Dr. Brown has contributed the following on 
behalf of the W. C. T. U.] 

Doctor Ryland T.Brown was a firm friend and adviser of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union. In the crusade days, when 
the women went forth, Bible in hand, to do battle against the rum 
traffic, kneeling in the mud or snow in front of saloons, and going 
behind the bars and singing Rock of Ages and other sacred songs, 
Dr. Brown said it was almost like the millenium had come. When 
his wife was timid about going forth he said to her, " go," and when 
she was chosen to fill responsible places in the work of the W. C. 
T. IT., he said to her, " go, and I will go with you to every town you 
hold conventions in, and will assist you." 

When the women of the W. C. T. U. were working only from a 
religious and moral stand-point, he said they were building higher 
than they knew ; that the good work they were engaged in would 
develop their ability and awaken their latent powers, so that they 
would soon see that the liquor traffic must be put down by the 
ballot, and the result would be that the women of this nation would 
be enfranchised. 

When the women took up the subject of communion wine, and 
undertook to have alcoholic liquid kept off of the Lord's table, and 
its place supplied with unfermented " fruit of the vine," Dr. Brown 
gave much time and thought to the matter, and rendered invalua- 
ble and effective aid. 

The Central W. C. T. U. sent to his funeral a beautiful floral 
tribute in token of their loving remembrance of him, and then had 
it renewed and sent to the memorial service held in honor of Dr. 
Brown. It was made of ripe wheat and beautiful roses, and tied 
with their national emblem, a bow of white ribbon. 

His widow still keeps it as a sacred testimonial of the high es- 
teem in which her venerated husband was held by her co-workers 
of the W. C. T. U. 



8 4 



DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN, 



[Christian Woman's Board of Missions, of Ohio.] 

Waynesyille, 0.. May 28, 1890. 
Mrs. R. T. Brown, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

Dear Sister — We. the Obituary Committee of the C. W. B. M. of 
Ohio, appointed at the state convention held at Dayton, do wish at 
this time to extend our sympathy to you in behalf of the C. W. B. 
M. of Ohio, in this your hour of bereavement. We appreciate how 
you love, and have worked for, the cause we so much love. We 
know, too, that Brother Brown was in perfect sympathy with the 
C. W. B. M., and with any work for God. When such as he leave 
us to struggle on, we feel a new incentive to noble endeavor, and 
the words, "Be thou faithful until death," have a new significance 
to us. We feel that it is possible for us, though ever so weak, to 
fight the good fight of faith, and to "lay hold on eternal life." We 
feel that we can not teach you anything of faith and trust in the 
Holy One, for we know that you have long ago placed your hand 
confidingly in His Almighty arm, and have gone with him through 
joy and through sorrow. We know you are trusting Him who will 
go with us through six troubles, and in the seventh will not forsake 
us. May His everlasting arms be about you and bear you up from 
the sorrows of earth, and at last we know that you, with your dear 
companion, will grow young again in the eternal bliss of Heaven. 

Mis- Mary M. Smith. Washington C. H., O., 

Mrs. Elsie McDonald, Vrbana. 0., 

Obituary Committee. 



[Central W. C. T. U.] 

Indianapolis, May S, 1890. 
Mrs. Brown — Dear Sister : We would as a W. C. T. U. ex- 
press our profound sympathy with you in your grief and bereave- 
ment, in the death of your husband, the noble and revered Dr. R. 
T. Brown. We feel that words are weak to comfort you in your 
loneliness, and can only assure you of our love and confidence, and 
commend you to our loving Heavenly Father, who has said : " I 
will not leave you comfortless." " Let not your heart be troubled." 
Sorrowing with you. our dear sister, we mourn also as friends. 
By order Central W. C. T. U. 

Jessie E. Pollock, Secretary. 



[Mrs. J{ 88U E. PoU 

Indianapolis, May 8, 1890. 
Dear Mrs. Brown — I send you a token of sympathy, which the 
Union directed me to send you. We all mourn for the dear one 



APPENDIX. 85 

gone, and in our office his loss is felt most keenly. It seems hard to 
say, " Thy will be done," when we feel so much the need of his 
counsel, help and wisdom. We had almost hoped you might feel 
able to meet with us to-day. Will try and see you before long, to 
express in person my sympathy. 

May God keep and comfort you, my dear friend. 

J. E. Pollock. 



[Miss Lodie E. Reed, Secretary Indiana Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union.] 

Indianapolis, May 6, 1890. 
Dear Mrs. Brown: 

In times of such bereavement as yours, words of sympathy must 
seem empty, yet I beg leave to express my sorrow — and *Mollie's — 
in the bereavement which has come to you. Yet, I can not do less 
than mingle congratulations with my sympathy, that such a rich 
legacy is left you in the memory of so noble, pure and useful a life 
as that of Dr. Brown, who liveth still in the works which do follow 
him. Yours sincerely, Lodie E. Eeed. 



:: Mi8s Mollie G. Hay. 



[Mrs. J. K. Rogers, of the Missouri W. C. T. U.~\ 

Columbia, Mo., May 15, 1890. 
Dear Sister Brown: 

In this, your life sorrow, I want you to know that I can weep 
with you; I can know your great loss, your lonely home, your 
empty couch, your vacant chair, your loneliness of heart ; but be 
comforted, for the time will come when there shall be no more sor- 
row, no more crying, no more pain, and you will then know why 
all this. Heaven is dearer, and the time will not be long until we 
all shall be gathered in our Father's home, the house of many 
mansions prepared for those who have washed their robes and 
made them white. Be of good courage, be strong in the Lord, for 
" He is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and delivereth 
them out of their troubles." I feel that words are empty, but to 
know that friends remember us in our troubles, and pray for our 
afflictions, is a comfort; and as one who thus sympathizes, I write. 
Your Sister, Mrs. J. K. Rogers. 



[Resolution of respect to the memory of Dr. Ryland T. Brown, by the 
members of the Marion Co. Agricultural and Horticultural Society.] 
We deem it appropriate to place upon the records of our society 

the following tribute to the memory of our deceased member, 

Dr. Ryland T. Brown. 



86 DR. RYLAND T. BROVVX. 

Dr. R. T. Brown was for many years a regular and interested at- 
tendant upon our monthly meetings, ready at all times to take 
part in the proceedings with useful and practical remarks, to 
which it was always a pleasure and source of profit to listen. We 
greatly miss his venerable form and genial smile, and shall always 
hold him in grateful remembrance. 

J. G. Kingsbury, 
Sylvester Johnson, 
A. C. Howland, 
Fielding Beeler, 

Committee. 



[Miss Ida F. Richardson.] 

Indianapolis, July, 1890. 
Mrs.R.T. Brown: 

At the May meeting of the Marion County Agricultural and 
Horticultural Society, a committee was appointed to draw up ap- 
propriate resolutions upon the death of Dr. R. T. Brown, whom each 
member held in the highest esteem. The society went to La Fay- 
ette the next month; members of the committee were absent the 
month following, but last Saturday the enclosed resolution was 
offered, ordered spread upon the minutes, and a copy of it be sent to 
you. 

Please accept our heartfelt sympathy in your bereavement. The 
good man was dear to the hearts of all who knew him, and we feel 
that he has but gone to the higher life and usefulness he was so 
eminently fitted to fill. 

Respectfully yours, 

Ida F. Richardson, Secretary. 



[Philip McNab, M. D., formerly a partner of Dr. Brown.'] 

It is a pleasure as well as a duty I owe to the memory of Dr. Ry- 
land T. Brown, that I should bear testimony to some of the char- 
acteristic virtues of that great and good man. In fact, it is but fit- 
ting that I should do so, owing to the intimate relations that ex- 
isted between him and myself. 

It was my good fortune to make his acquaintance in the relation 
of student and teacher, when he first entered the Northwestern 
Christian University (now Butler University) as professor of nat- 
ural sciences, in the year 185S. I soon found Dr. Brown an inesti- 
mable instructor. With such a teacher the thoughtful student 
finds the sciences a most delightful field for investigation. 

Notwithstanding there was more than a quarter of a century of 



APPENDIX. 87 

difference in his age and mine, the acquaintance formed as above 
stated had developed, before the close of the college year, into an 
intimate and confidential friendship that not only continued una- 
bated, but was strengthened from year to year up to the time of 
his death. 

After I severed my connection with the University, and had 
studied and practiced my profession for some four years in the 
northern part of the state, by invitation of Dr. Brown I came to 
Indianapolis at the beginning of 1864 and entered into partnership 
with him in the practice of medicine — he still retaining his profes- 
sorship in the college. I was to do the bulk of the practice while 
he would be the consulting -physician and would devote as much 
time as he had to spare from his duties at the college ; and most 
faithfully did he do his part, both as partner and professor. 

My relation to Dr. Brown as partner in the practice of medi- 
cine was a most happy and profitable one to me — profitable espe- 
cially in the acquirement of enlarged and more practical profes- 
sional attainments, and in a more extensive knowledge of the col- 
lateral sciences. 

I wish here to record my appreciation of Dr. Brown, so far as 
words will express that appreciation, by saying that other than 
my own immediate family and parents, I am more indebted to him 
for those acquirements that the better fitted me for all the duties 
and relations of life than to any other person, living or dead. In 
saying this, I do not underestimate the valuable instructions that 
I received from a score of other able teachers in the literary and 
medical colleges that I attended, and for whom I have a very high 
regard. And yet, Dr. Brown did no more for me than he would 
have done, and did, so far as opportunity offered, for scores of other 
young men. In the death of Dr. Brown the loss to me is doubtless 
greater than to any other person outside of the members of his own 
family. 

As the lawyers appeal their causes from a lower to a higher 
court, and as the Supreme Court is the one of last resort, so with 
me in all the knotty questions of science, whether an intricate 
question of chemical analysis, or of electrical science, or a question 
of pathology at the bedside, Dr. Brown was the court of last resort. 
And while I did not always fully agree with him at the time of the 
consultation, time so uniformly proved him to have been correct, 
that I do not now remember a single instance in which I think his 
judgment was at fault. 

While Dr. Brown was associated with me in the active practice 
of medicine, and while he was neglecting no duty in connection 
with his professorship at the college, he also filled appointments 



88 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

to preach almost every Saturday night and Lord's Day, at various- 
points in the state. 

He would go to his appointments by rail and preach Saturday 
night, and forenoon and night on Lord's Day, except in the 
summer season when the days were long, he would preach in 
the afternoon on Lord's Day instead of at night, and if the distance 
was not more than ten or twelve miles he would walk home after 
services in the afternoon, and attend church in the city at night, 
rather than wait for the train on Monday morning. His duties at 
the college required him to be there from 8 : 30 a. m. until 12 : 30 p. m* 
most of which time he was engaged in teaching his classes, which 
he did by lectures. During the afternoons, perhaps as often as 
three or four times a week, he would fill engagements with business 
firms, railroad officials or committees on various scientific or edu- 
cational interests, in which his counsel and advice were desired. 
These services were generally rendered gratuitously. He was also, 
at the same time and during the remainder of his life, a regular con- 
tributor to several periodicals and newspapers, and would fre- 
quently meet with, and read papers on various topics before, the 
horticultural, agricultural and other societies. 

I mention these various engagements that the reader may 
know something of the indefatigable energy of Dr. Brown, and 
the vast amount of labor, both mental and physical, that 
was performed by him. When he was State Geologist he 
made a geological survey of the state on foot, visiting almost 
every nook and corner of the state, aixd making careful in- 
vestigations of formations and mineral resources ; so that he be- 
came personally familiar with the hills and dales of every part 
of it. And when others visit any part of the state in geological 
research, they find that Dr. Brown has been there before them. 
Where a new discovery is made, Dr. Brown had blazed the path 
that led to it. 

Dr. Brown was regarded by those who best knew him, as a versa- 
tile genius ; a man of great breadth as well as depth of information. 

Though his knowledge was so very comprehensive and diversi- 
fied, yet he was superficial in no branch of it ; but was profound in 
most if not all the sciences — so much so that he was ever a genial 
companion for the most erudite of the scientists. AVhen present 
where questions of science were being discussed, others — even 
those who were specialists in the particular branch under consid- 
eration — having exhausted their knowledge, 'Dr. Brown being 
called upon would frequently pour in such a flood of light on the 
subject as to interest and astonish those present, and open up new 
fields for thought and investigation. 



APPENDIX. 89 

Dr. Brown as a teacher was most practical — he outlined and gen- 
eralized more than he entered into detail and minutiae, believing 
that the student would be more benefited by mastering details to 
some extent himself. His lectures to his students were compre- 
hensive, however, and were characterized by originality. The same 
characteristics were manifest in his writings for the press, and in his 
papers and lectures before scientific bodies — these were largely sug- 
gestive rather than exhaustive. And yet, in his chemical analyses 
and scientific investigations he was very exact and reliable. He 
did nothing loosely or by guess where accuracy was demanded. 

Dr. Brown was quite as erudite in Biblical lore as he was in the 
sciences — he drank too deeply from the fountain of revelation, as- 
well as of science, not to see the fallacy of those of less attainments 
who think they discover a lack of harmony in the truths of revela- 
tion and the truths of science. From Dr. Brown's stand-point, the 
harmony was complete and perfect. From his stand-point the 
sciences emphasize the fact of the creation, but of themselves give no 
account of the Creator. In reading the account given in Genesis — 
" In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," he 
would always place the emphasis on " God." Having learned from 
the Bible that God was the Creator, he could the better under- 
stand that there was and had been a creation, and he was then 
prepared to " loook up through nature to nature's God." The more 
he studied the great book of nature, the better he could under- 
stand and appreciate its correlative— the book of revelation. To 
him the " mistakes " of Ingersoll, instead " of Moses," were con- 
spicuous. 

AVhile he was not dogmatic himself, he was too critical and ana- 
lytical in his investigations to be misled by the fallacies and dog- 
mas of sectarianism, which Ingersoll, in his ignorance of the cor- 
rect teachings of the Scriptures, quotes and ridicules as Bible doc- 
trine. On the other hand, his information was too broad and com- 
prehensive to be mystified by those would-be Biblicists and scien- 
tists, who, like Ingersoll, have but a superficial knowledge of the 
Scriptures, owing to their having merely studied disconnected 
parts, intent only on finding preconceived errors instead of truth, 
and having run to seed, so to speak, on some of the sciences, are 
consequently narrow and one-sided in their reasonings. His faith 
was too well fortified for his equanimity to be disturbed by the 
reasonings of such men as Darwin, Huxley and Spencer, and the 
lesser lights of materialistic philosophy. Dr. Brown investigated 
the Scriptures on the broader plane, seeking the truths they con- 
tain ; recognizing the fact that it takes all the integral parts of 
God's truth which are contained in revelation and in science to 



9° 



DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 



make a complete whole. Nor was his faith in the least shaken in 
the Divinity of Christ by the now somewhat popular doctrine of 
modern Unitarianism, as will be seen by his last Easter Sunday 
sermon, which is herewith published. 

Dr. Brown was always a leader in all reforms, religious, moral 
and political, consequently was always in advance of the age. As 
a minister he was in the fore-front of the reformation (or restora- 
tion of primitive Christianity, as advocated by the Campbells, 
Stone, Scott and others), in fact may properly be said to have 
been one of the pioneers in that work. And while he was more 
than half a century in advance of the age in his early life, he lived 
to see the trend of the masses of the great religious bodies towards 
the principles that he advocated, viz. : " Union of all Christians." 
which he maintained could only be accomplished by taking the 
Bible as the only correct and all sufficient " rule and guide of 
faith." 

Dr. Brown was a religious reformer only in the sense of adhering 
strictly to the teaching, and observing rigidly the example, of 
Christ and his Apostles. He never allowed any claims of so-called 
" sanctified common sense " to stand between him and that teach- 
ing and example. He recognized Christ's authority to command, 
and that anything short of obeying "from the heart that form of 
doctrine which was delivered," is disobedience. 

He had no sympathy with the modern so-called liberalism which 
sanctions a disregard of the positive commandments of Christ, or 
the substitution of something else, as may suit the caprice of the 
individual, for commandments designed to demonstrate faith in 
Christ, and respect for his teaching. He believed and taught that 
when Jesus said, "If a man love Me he will keep My words;" and 
when He further said, " He that loveth Me not, keepeth not My 
sayings," He meant just that and nothing less. 

Of the political and moral reforms of his day which he advocated, 
and in which he bore a conspicuous part, I will not here speak, as 
these topics have been fittingly elaborated by others, and what 
they have said appears in another part of this memorial publica- 
tion. I will only add : That which was morally wrong could not 
be politically right with him. 

Although Dr. Brown was free from ostentation, such a character 
as his must make its impress, not on the present only, but upon 
future generations as well. As the light of the sun when it is sink- 
in.: behind the western horizon will shimmer and scintillate, and 
thus be reflected and transmitted upon the wavelets, across the 
bosom of the great deep; so the light from the lessons taught by 
Dr. Brown, by precept and example, his great philanthropy, the 



APPENDIX. 91 

sacrifices he made for the good of others, and his vast labors for 
the reforms he advocated, will scintillate and be reflected and 
transmitted upon the wavelets of the ocean of time, from genera- 
tion to generation, all along down the ages, and multitudes will be 
benefited who may not know from whence the light came. These 
influences will be reflecting and molding character long after all 
those who knew Dr. Brown in the flesh will have passed below the 
western horizon of life, and their names will have ceased to be 
spoken by the sons and daughters of men. 

Thus, "being dead he yet speaketh." Philip McNab. 

Indianapolis. 

[Mrs. Hester A. Wharton, Mrs. Brown's Sister.] 

Armourdale, Kan., May 13, 1890. 
My Dear Sister Nannie: 

\Ve saw in the Kansas City Star the notice of Dr. Brown's death, 
the next morning after he died. I received the Indiana Farmer last 
night that had his picture in it, and Isaac's letter. * * * * 
I need not say that I was sorry to hear of the death of one so 
good and instructive and useful as he was. Our loss is great, but 
his good works will live forever. I do sympathize with you in your 
loneliness, and pray God to make you able to bear your trouble 
and comfort you. 0, how I wish I could have seen him ; but it 
will not be long until we will all meet to part no more. * * * 

Your sister, 

Hester A. Wharton. 



[Mrs. Ibbie E. Chambers, Mrs. Brown's Sister.] 

Pratt, Kan., July 11, 1890. 
Mrs. Nancy T. Brown: 

My Dear Sister — I am so very sorry that I have not written 
you sooner. We did receive the letter telling of your great be- 
reavement, and, of course, saw accounts in the papers. Language 
would fail to tell how deeply I sympathize with you. * * * * 
It would not be necessary for me to tell you of the estimation in 
which I always held Dr. Brown. You know the kindness with 
which he always treated me. Suffice it to say, it has not been for- 
gotten, nor ever will be. You probably remember of his writing 
me at the time of Tommie's and Willie's deaths. I have always kept 
the letter and verses. It will be very precious now. He says : 

" I shall not make the vain attempt to soothe your sorrow. Hu- 
man power, though it may bridge oceans and span continents, ut- 
terly fails at this point. In the presence of death our wisest philoso- 



92 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWX. 

phy has no enchantment that can call away the stricken heart from 
its great anguish. To Him we must go who brought Life and Im- 
mortality to light. He alone has the words of eternal life. This 
world has no abiding joys. On that house of many mansions we 
must fix our hopes and live for Heaven." 
I transfer his words here because they are so fitly chosen. * * 
Your loving sister, 

Ibbie E. Chambers. 



[Austin H. Brown — Dr. Brown's Nephew.] 

Omaha, Xeb., May 5, 1890. 

My Dear Aunt — My wife and I were quite shocked at noon to- 
day, on receiving an Indianapolis paper of Saturday, to learn of 
the death of my dear uncle, on Friday afternoon, and that the 
funeral would take place to-day. We had seen in the papers a brief 
mention of the fact that he was ill, but had no idea that it was so 
serious, though his age and his feeble constitution (of late) would 
warn us that he might not endure any serious attack. I take this 
early opportunity to assure you that we both sincerely feel his 
great loss to his family, relatives, friends, his church, the great 
cause of reform of which he was a consistent and earnest advocate, 
and to the public who knew and appreciated his worth. You, your- 
self, have our entire sympathy, and no words that I can write can 
express to you our sorrow, or tend to alleviate your grief at his 
loss. 

Had we known, in time, we should, although the distance is 
great, have gone to Indianapolis to attend the funeral. 

With love to yourself and yours, from my wife as well as myself, 
I am, affectionately your nephew, 

Austin H. Brown. 



[Mrs. Susan A. Goodale — Dr. Brown's Niece.] 

Clear Creek, Monroe Co., Ind., May 13, 1890. 
Mrs. R. T. Brown: 

My Dear Aunt — The Farmer and Mr. Tomlinson's letter, an- 
nouncing the sad news of uncle's death, were both received at the 
same time — last Saturday eve. 

In this your sad bereavement I wish to assure you of the deep 
sympathy of myself and all our family. We all feel that one of our 
dearest and most honored friends has passed away. 

The news was quite a shock to me, for the thought of Uncle Ry- 
land sick, or dying, had never entered my head. I don't think I 



APPENDIX. 93 

believed what the Farmer said of his condition in the two issues 
previous to the one containing the tidings of his death. 

If ever a widow could lean on the arm of the Lord, and trust that 
her dear one had entered into his rest, you, my dear aunt, cer- 
tainly can. His simple, earnest life was an inspiration to all who 
knew him ; his unfailing kindness endeared him to all. 

I recollect once hearing him express the wish, " That the good 
Lord in his mercy will remove me before I lose my faculties." Let 
me again assure you of my deep sympathy, and would like to hear 
from you if you deem these poor lines worthy an answer. 
Your affectionate niece, 

Susan A. Goodale. 



[Robert Denny.'] 

Indianapolis, May 2, 1890. 
F. Brown, Esq., City: 
My Very Dear Friend — Allow me thus to disturb the sacred 
precincts of the great sorrow that I know fills your heart and soul, 
from the death of your esteemed and precious brother this sad aft- 
ernoon. 

I need not say it for your information, for I feel that you already 
know it : I loved Kyland as I love a brother. And I ask you to 
suffer me to mingle my tears with yours, and those of the family, 
in mourning our great loss. 

May it be your happy lot, and mine, as well as the lot of all who 
were dear to your brother, to join him among the hosts of the Re- 
deemed. 

And when the last farewells are spoken, 
The pitchers at life's fountains broken ; 
O, then, may friends again strike hand, 
And share the peaceful rest of Leal Land. 

Truly yours, Robert Denny. 



[Ira J. Chase, Lieutenant-Governor.} 

Danville, Ind., May 4, 1890. 
Mrs. R. T. Brown, Indianapolis: 

Dear Sister in Christ — The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be 
with you all. Amen. 

I regret that I could not speak to you to-day, owing to the great 
crowd who assembled to pay tribute to your husband's worth and 
memory. 

He was one of the best of men. This, no one knows better than 
you and the children. 

The God of all grace and comfort, comfort your minds and hearts. 
In Christian bonds, Ira J. Chase. 



94 



DR. RYLAND T. BE OWN. 



[Professor Hoss, of Baker University, formerly of Indianapolis.] 

Baldwin, Kansas, May 5, 1890. 
My Dear Friend and Sister, Mr*. Byland T. Brown: 

To-day my paper brought me the sad, sad news of the death of my 
dear friend, your husband. What a shock ! It came so near to me. 
We were so long acquainted, and I esteemed him so highly. One of 
God's noblemen, unselfish, philanthropic, ever active, ever seeking 
the good of his fellows. How we ask that such men could live on 
through centuries. They are an honor to their kind ; a blessing to 
the race. 

While you agree to all this, it don't fill the void nor bind the 
riven heart. No, nor any poor words I can utter can do it. No, 
no ; in such an hour words are empty, vain. I have gone through 
it, and know T what it is to have the deep waters come over me. 
May God help you, we poor mortals can't. We can only express 
our sorrow and our sympathy, but the hearth and chair still are 
vacant. 

0, this mystery of Death ! I stand still before it, awe-struck and 
amazed, saying, why must we and our loved ones go down through 
the gates of darkness to reach the gates of light ? 

I must not go further. May God keep and comfort you and us 
all, till we meet the loved ones gone on before. 
Your affectionate and sympathizing brother, 

Geo. W. Hoss. 

What are these beautiful, luring ideals, bright and sweet as 
angel visions from the skies, if not pledge and promise of some- 
thing better beyond? — Hoss. 



[Elder Aaron Walker.'] 

North Indianapolis, May 16, 1890. 
Dear Brother Denny: 

I regret, exceedingly, that I will not be able to meet with you in 
the memorial services of Lord's Day evening. There w r as no man 
upon this earth whom I would more delight to honor than Brother 
Brown. I am under especial obligations to the church at North 
Liberty, Ind., and therefore must beg the committee to excuse me. 
Yours truly, Aaron Walker. 



[Elder L. L. CarpenU r. Pn sident of Bethany Asst mblyj] 

Wabash, Ind., May 5, 1890. 
My Dear Sistt r Brown : 

I have heard, with irreat sorrow, of the death of your dear hus- 
band, our beloved Brother Brown. My heart is greatly pained, 



APPENDIX. 



95 



and I desire to express to you my heartfelt sympathy in your great 
sorrow. May the Loving Father comfort your heart in your afflic- 
tion, is my prayer. 

While we mourn the death of your husband, yet we greatly re- 
joice that God spared his useful life so long. The world has been 
made much better because Dr. Brown lived in it. 

Most fraternally, L. L. Carpenter. 

[Dr. John G. L. Myers.] 

Bloomingdale, Ind., May 5, 1890. 
Mrs. JR. T. Broun, Indianapolis, Ind.: 

Dear Sister — In your bereavement be sure you have the earn- 
est sympathy of our entire I. S. C. T. Union. The Doctor lived a 
glorious life, and his will be a glorious resurrection. Personally, I 
rejoice to have been his friend. To you the Lord gave the most 
sacred relationship. May He keep you in " perfect peace," and en- 
able you, even in this hour of sorrow, to " give thanks." 

Respectfully, J. G. L. Myers. 



[Mrs. Helen M. Gougar.] 

La Fayette, Ind., May 9, 1890. 
' Dear Sister Brown — I have no words at my command with which 
to express my profound sense of loss and grief in the death of your 
noble husband. You have my sincere sympathy, as you will have 
of thousands of others who know and honor the life that has been 
such a blessing to his day and generation. His blessed memory is 
yours to love and cherish until the short span of life is ended and 
you join him in heavenly peace and rest. 

The loss to our state and our reforms is irreparable. His experi- 
ence, his ripe judgment, his clear, keen intellect, his high sense of 
honor and patriotism, his pure Christian character, made him a 
power and an example to us all, and we will look in vain for any to 
fill his place. I remember with pleasure that he has been our guest. 
When he was here during the '88 campaign, I thought he must be 
weary with travel and speaking. I requested him to excuse himself 
from the company and retire to his room and rest. With his sweet 
smile he said: "0, no, I do not need rest; I am as young as any 
of you now, and can endure as much, I think." And he did do as 
much in that month as any other of the twelve younger speakers 
I had in the field. 

He is gone. His works will live after him and never die. 

May God be round about you and give you grace to bear this 
great affliction. 



g6 DR. RYLAXD T. BROWN. 

Mr. Gougar joins in sympathy to you in this dark hour of 
grief and bereavement. Lovingly yours, 

Helen M. Gougar. 



[Church of Christ, Erie, Pa., E. L. Frazier, Minister.] 

Erie, Pa., May 9, 1890. 

Dear Sister Brown — With mingled feelings of sadness and glad- 
ness we have heard of the death of the dear and venerable Dr. 
Brown. Glad for him, sad for the Church and the world, so much 
in need of his great store of knowledge, his firm voice for the right, 
and the example of his pure life. Sad that the great cause of Pro- 
hibition has lost so able and mighty a defender. Though dead, he 
yet speaketh ; yea, and will continue to speak, loudly and elo- 
quently, through the many who have been taught by him so many 
truths concerning this great matter. 

Dr. Brown was one of the pillars ; a marked man in his age. He 
has left his impress upon the world. His life has been long and 
his labors great. His reward is great. He will live in the mem- 
ory of the people. Blessed is his memory. How the company on 
the other side is growing. We will not feel like strangers when we 
come. 

May God bless you, Sister Brown, and give you comfort, and pre- 
serve your health and strength for years of good service in every 
good w r ork. 

Our God is dealing kindly with us and blessing our work. The 
little church is growing, and the mighty truth must prevail. 

There is one pulpit in this city of wealth and aristocratic tastes 
and habits that speaks out on the wine habit and will speak. 

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 

In much sympathy and Christian love, your Brother and Sister 
in Christ, E. L. and Jennie Frazier. 



[Former Editor Monitor- Journal.'] 

Louisville, Ky., May 10, 1890. 
Mrs. JR. T. Brown : 

-My Dear Mother in the Temperance Cause — I read in the 
Void to-day of the death of Dr. Brown, and though he lived to a 
noble purpose, and a grand old age, death is something w r e are 
never prepared for, and I fully sympathize with you in your be- 
reavement. If we could all live the exemplary life led by Dr. 
Ryland T. Brown, what a grand old world this would be ! Free 



(■'Through Mrs. Brown's special efforts Mr. Shiel was saved from the drink habit. 
-Editor.) 



APPENDIX. 97 

from the unholy influences of political chicanery and the curse of 
•am rule. Too much could not be said in praise of Dr. Brown, and 
the sorrow on account of his death can not be expressed. God 
bless you ! Your friend, M. E. Shiel. 



[Capt. E. F. Bitter. } 

Indianapolis, April 30, 1891. 

I wish to pay tribute to the memory of my most highly esteemed 
friend, Dr. Ryland T. Brown. I first became acquainted with him 
in the year 1858, when I took a seat in his recitation room, in what, 
was then the Northwestern Christian University, in this city. From 
that time on I knew him, but not intimately until about ten years 
ago, and more especially during the past six years. I have never 
received so much benefit in the associations with any man outside 
of those who had the special charge of my training and education 
in boyhood, as came to me from this man. 

No man I have ever known was so completely dominated by 
moral and intellectual thoughts and expressions. He used our 
language with great force and purity. It was an inspiration to 
talk when he was a listener. It was to be enthused and exalted 
mentally and morally to listen when he talked. There was an un- 
ostentatious courage in the consideration of any question, and in 
the conclusion reached and in the expression of his views by him, 
the equal of which I have never known. A jewel in the swine's 
snout would have seemed no more out of place than subterfuge or 
sophistry on his tongue. 

His influence while living, upon all the people with whom he 
came in contact, or who read his production, will be conceded was 
very great, but I dare say the magnitude of that influence has 
never been measured, and I am glad to know does not end with the 
close of the funeral service. I am exceedingly thankful that I ever 
knew him. My acquaintance with him has made me think better 
of humanity, and has given me a better idea of sanctified human 
nature at its best. I have been thinking that if his mind could 
find so much pleasure in the midst of all the difficulties and sur- 
roundings of this life, with its narrow field and- little opportunity 
for thought, what an ecstacy of delight will be furnished amid the 
harmony and during the long rolling eternity that he will spend 
on the other shore. Eli F. Ritter. 

7 



98 DR. EYLAND T. BROWN. 

[The following should have been inserted in connection with the 
Indiana Farmer editorial on the death of Dr. Brown, but was mis- 
placed, and is given a place here. — Editor.] 

During the five years of the publication of the Indiana 
Phalanx prior to Dr. Brown's death, he was a prolific 
and always entertaining and instructive contributor to 
its columns. The issue of May 9, 1890, the first after 
his death, contained a memorial article, by Rev. John 
A. Pollock, then the editor, as follows : 

A VETERAN GONE ! DR. RYLAND T. BROWN CLOSES AN EVENTFUL 
AND USEFUL LIFE. 

Ryland T. Brown, preacher, physician, teacher, scientist, patriot, 
reformer, author and orator, died at his home, in Indianapolis, 
May 2, 1890, of a relapse of la grippe, complicated with heart 
trouble and nervous prostration. 

Dr. Brown was born in Lewis county, Kentucky, October 5, 1807. 
His ancestors were Welch, and a long-lived family. 

Plis father moved to Ohio in 1809 and to Rush county, Indiana, 
in 1821, where they settled in the back woods. The deceased was 
a slender, weakly lad, and it was fortunate for him to be in the 
frontier where, as a Ximrod of the forest and guide to land hunt- 
ers, his physical development was well provided for. When but a 
lad he was passionately fond of reading, and walked many miles to 
the library at Rushville for reading material. 

By the death of his father, in 1825, he was led to the study of 
diseases and their remedies, which determined his professional life. 
He studied medicine and graduated at Ohio Medical College, Cin- 
cinnati, 1829. 

But his life was given as much to the gospel ministry as to the 
practice of medicine. At the age of fifteen he joined the Baptist 
church, but connected with the Christian church in 1830, and since 
has been recognized as one of the ablest of her ministry. For fifty- 
eight consecutive years he preached a sermon on each Easter, the 
last being at Greenfield, Ind., on April 6, 1890. He seldom wrote 
his sermons, but as he remarked in the Phalanx office a few days 
before its delivery, he committed this one to manuscript, thinking 
that it might be his last, which it proved to be. The subject was 
significant, in view of his approaching death, being the " Resur- 
rection." This excellent discourse, full of faith and scripture 
knowledge, was in the hands of the editor of Phalanx for perusal at 
the time of the Doctor's death, and we extract the following: 



APPENDIX. 99 

" The future life is not a question of philosophy but a matter of 
faith ; not a question of reason, but of revelation. 

"When an inspired Apostle declares that ' there shall be a resur- 
rection both of the just and unjust/ he speaks without a figure ; 
and when the Great Teacher says that they who have done good 
shall come forth to the resurrection of life, and they who have 
done evil to the resurrection of condemnation, he speaks plainly. 
We are not only assured of a future life, but we are also taught 
that we shall retain our personal identity, and be conscious of all 
the deeds of the present life." 

Dr. Brown was married in 1829 to Miss Mary Reeder, and, having 
survived her, was again married, in 1866, to Mrs. Nancy Tomlinson, 
a most excellent, philanthropic lady, known to our readers by her 
work in the W. C. T. U. and other lines of reform, and who was an 
aid and encouragement to him in his work of reform, and still lives 
to carry it on after him. 

In 1850, the degree of Master of Arts was conferred on him by 
Wabash College, and never was it more worthily bestowed. 

In 1854, he was appointed State Geologist by Governor Wright, 
though of a different political faith, and he traversed the whole 
state, and knew more of its substrata than any man in it. Even 
as late as last summer he went, for a railroad company, to the 
head-waters of the Missouri river to pursue a geological investiga- 
tion. This great journey of three thousand miles showed the spirit 
and energy of this octogenarian. Upon this trip he surveyed some 
coal fields and indicated their value. 

In 1858, he was chosen to the chair of Natural Sciences in the 
Northwestern Christian University of Indianapolis (now Butler 
University, at Irvington). He taught there thirteen years. He 
was also one of the.original faculty of Indiana Medical College as 
professor of chemistry. 

He went to Washington, D. C, in 1871, being appointed by President 
Grant as chief chemist of the agricultural department, which po- 
sition he resigned, after a year, on account of health of his family 
and because he felt he could do more good elsewhere. During his 
stay in Washington he often preached in " the little church around 
the corner," made famous by the attendance of President Garfield, 
who always attended upon the preaching of Dr. Brown. 

But active as Dr. Brown was in the field of theology, medicine 
and science, these did not absorb all the energy of his wonderful 
mind. He was always active in the political world. Born a Dem- 
ocrat, he nevertheless affiliated with the Whigs until, in the slavery 
agitation, he became a " Free-soiler." He presented the name of 
George W. Julian to the convention that nominated him for the 



loo DR. KYLAXD T. BBOWN. 

Vice-Presidency in 1852. lie was prominent in the " People's 
Party " in 1854, and stumped the state, aiding much in the election 
of the legislature that gave the prohibitory law of 1855. He after- 
ward voted with the Republicans, till the organization of the Pro- 
hibition party in Indiana, on July 24, 1884, of which he has been a 
most honored and influential member, writing most of its plat- 
forms, furnishing much, and the best, of its literature and being 
foremost in its councils, and largely in work on the platform. 

Dr. Brown was himself a notable example of what temperance, 
which he so firmly advocated, will do for the frail human system. 
He was anything but robust in his youth ; so puny indeed that his 
parents, under a very common but mistaken notion that mental 
work is less taxing on the physical person than manual labor, had 
dedicated him to learning. Having hemorrhages of the lungs, that 
interfered with his preaching and the practice of medicine, he 
spent the year 1843 in the labor required in a saw-mill. Yet, by 
strictly temperance habits and proper care of himself, while pur- 
suing many forms of hard labor, he was preserved to his 83d year, 
with such health that he had not, until his final illness, been in bed 
a day for twenty-five years. 

The press, for the last half century and more, has been much the 
richer for the contributions of Dr. Brown. His articles have often 
enriched the columns of the Phalanx. Among the other papers for 
which he wrote are Indiana School Journal, Ohio Farmer, christian 
Record, Christian Luminary, Indiana Farmer and Clay Worh r, in the 
latter two of which he was associate editor at the time of his death. 

And what shall we say more, for time would fail us to tell of the 
faith, courage, perseverance, manliness, self-sacrifice, wisdom, gen- 
tleness, of this most lovely, wondrous man. 

The funeral took place on Monday last, at 10:30 a. m., from his 
home at 13 Central ave., in the unostentatious manner in accord 
with his character and wish. A very large number of the best 
citizens of the city and state joined the family and relatives in the 
impressive burial services. 



INDEX. 



Page 
Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Marion County 85 

Beeler, Fielding S6 

Benton, Allen R 21 

Biographical Sketch of Dr. Brown 7 

Blount, Brazillai M 11 

Bond, Pleasant 80 

Brown, Austin H 92 

Brown, Joseph F . . . 7, 58 

Capital City Prohibition Club 79 

Carey, Samuel F 52 

Carpenter, L. L 94 

Central Prohibition Club 11, 77 

Central Woman's Christian Temperance Union 84 

Christian "Woman's Board of Missions. 80, 84 

Chambers, Ibbie E 91 

Chase, Ira J 93 

Denny, Robert 5, 50, 54, 93 

Dow, Neal 52 

Easter Sermon, Dr. Brown 61 

Farmer, The Indiana 70 

Fletcher, Wm. B 28 

Frazier, E. L., and Jennie 96 

Goodale, Susan A 92 

Goodwin, Thomas A 72 

Gougar, Helen M 95 

Haggart, Mary E 34 

Hay, Mollie G 85 

Hoss, George W 94 

Howland, A. C 86 

Howe, Daniel W 46 

Hughes, Jasper S 42 



102 INDEX. 

Page. 

Indiana Farmer 70 

Indiana Phalanx 98 

Jameson, Love H 12, 33, 59 

Jameson, Maria 80 

Johnson, Sylvester 86 

Julian, George W 53 

Kingsbury, James G 70, 86 

McDonald, Elsie 84 

McNab, Philip 11, 14, 86 

Memorial Services 11-59 

Myers, J. G. L 95 

Phalanx, The Indiana 98 

Poem, In Memoriam, Joseph F. Brown 58 

Poem, New Year Musings, Dr. E. T. Brown 60 

Pollock, Jesse E 84 

Pollock, John A !>s 

Prayer, L. H. Jameson 12, 59 

Reed, Lodie E 85 

Richardson, Ida F 86 

Ritter, Eli F 97 

Rogers, Mrs. J. K 85 

Shiel, M. E 96 

Siler, E. C 80 

Smith, Mary M 84 

Van Buskirk, Daniel R 15 

Walker, Aaron { . »4 

Wharton, Hester A 9] 

AVoman's Christian Temperance Union 82, 83, 84, 85 



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